Best way to follow the Olympics

In case you are not already doing so, Twitter has been a great way to follow (and participate in) Olympics coverage.

For the opening ceremony a large group of us wrote 140 character postings with the agreed tag #080808.

Lonnie Hodge - who also Twitted - blogged about the outcome:

And yesterday’s hash mash (a way to view aggregated info on a single topic) during the Olympic Opening Ceremonies was just straight-up fun! David Feng, the hardest working tweeter in the business, did a better job at translations, and commentary than did any of the newscasters on CCTV or Pearl (HK).

Kaiser Kuo, Paul Denlinger, Thomas Cramption, China Buzz (from the news center), Rebecca MacKinnon, Papa John, Siok Siok Tan, Marc (from inside the stadium), Frank, and a host of others joined the creators, like Flypig, of a phenomenon that was and is by turns funny, wonderfully irreverent, informative and better at fashion critiques and obscure celebrity sightings than (insert the dubious catch of Canadian language geek DaShan walking with the Canuck team) is Perez Hilton’s army of snitches. And they do this while character-cuffed to 140 (133 if you count the hash tag) keyboard ticks a tweet.

I think having to compress thoughts quickly and concisely forces you to write free of your normal subjective shorthand and makes for unusual candor and sometimes great comedy: Cyber-Haiku.

Technorati Tags: China, Chinabuzz, David Feng, Flypig, Kaiser Kuo, Lonnie Hodge, Papa John, rebecca mackinnon, twitter

Lonnie Hodge: Praise for Baidu selling search results

Unlike Google, China’s dominant search engine - Baidu - sells its results page.
Lonnie Hodge, a search engine optimization expert (see video here about his departure from academics after many years), sent over some slides about a relatively new way Baidu is selling search results: Brandlink.

For one million RMB (Roughly US$130,000), a brand - and only the brand itself - can show their logo and image with search results.

Brandlink can help companies control and develop their reputation.
“We were contacted by two companies who were Google and Baidu-bombed by a competitor via BBS and blog reference negativity (mostly fake) and both were doing a lot of damage,” Hodge said, adding that Brandlink might help mitigate this problem.

It is naive to think that Google’s results are not for sale
Google may not be directly involved in the sale of their results, but Hodge pointed out that there is a reason people pay top dollar to search engine specialists. These specialists work for the wealthiest and savviest companies to skew results. “The average SEO specialist in the US with 5 to 7 years of campaign management can command US$100,000 to US$250,000 for his/her talents. That certainly indicates an uneven playing field exists and that the results are dubious at best.”

initial results show from Baidu’s Brandlink show an improved rate of click-through

But the question remains: Are purchased search results unethical?
Hodge praised Baidu for only selling the top four results and putting a line under them and only allowing brands and government agencies to buy their own search results page.

Technorati Tags: Culture Fish Media, Lonnie Hodge

Lonnie Hodge

A university professor for 34 years and popular blogger who has now launched himself into the world of search engine optimization in China. His company Culture Fish Media helps brands with reputation management online in China.

Technorati Tags: Culture Fish Media, Lonnie Hodge