Birmingham Web Designer Jeremy Flint

Yahoo! Employee Blog Guidelines

2005-06-01T05:29:00.000-07:00

Yahoo! Employee Blog Guidelines: The official version and my own advice (by Jeremy Zawodny)

After a lot of work internally, the Yahoo! Employee Blog Guidelines have been published. Yahoo! employees can find them on Backyard (our corporate Intranet) and the rest of you can get the PDF file by clicking that link.

2005-05-31T05:14:00.000-07:00

Blog Tips from a 900 Year-Old Muppet: There's a great post over on Tris Hussey's site on how Yoda would advise companies thinking about blogging...

Blog you must for your business
Truth, passion, authenticity a blogger must have
Comment and trackback spam paths to the Darkside are
Prideful blogging, a dangerous thing it is. A way to the Darkside it is
The Blog-i Masters train you in the way of the Blog, they can
Blog-i Masters guardians of the Blogosphere they are
May the Blog be with you

2005-05-31T05:13:00.000-07:00

SMU Cans Blogging Prof: "

The Houston Chronicle reports
that a professor who kept an anonymous blog about her experiences on
campus was let go. The school says it wasn't about the blog, she says
it was. The irony - she teaches PR ethics! (Via Shankman)

2005-05-31T05:12:00.000-07:00

Blogging Becomes a Corporate Job: "A small but growing number of businesses are hiring people to write blogs."

2005-05-27T15:19:00.000-07:00

Why you should be using RSS: "RSS opens up a whole new channel of communication between you and the browsing public. If at the moment you do not have an RSS feed then there is a whole community of people who do not know about you. Isn’t it time you started to publish an RSS feed, here are a few reasons to get started right now."

2005-05-18T16:17:00.000-07:00

Ajax.NET - The free library for .NET (C: "Ajax goodness"

2005-05-18T05:47:00.000-07:00

XMLHTTPRequest & Ajax Resource list: "This dude has put together a very good list of working XMLHTTPRequest & Ajax examples from across the web. Excellent resource if your researching the technology.

2005-05-17T04:16:00.000-07:00

Latest sober worm sends German spam: Internet News from The Industry Standard

E-mail users perplexed by the barrage of German-language spam waiting in their inboxes Monday morning can point the finger of blame at the latest version of the Sober mass mailing worm which began rapidly spreading over the weekend.

Sober.q uses both German and English-language messages to direct recipients to Web sites with right-wing German nationalistic content, according to an advisory from e-mail security company MX Logic Inc. One of the URLs (uniform resource locators) points to the Web site of the right-wing German NPD party, it said.

The security firm said that it had seen over 125,000 instances of Sober.q overnight Saturday and into Sunday, and labelled it as a high severity threat. The variant is downloaded by computers already infected by the Sober.p worm which began circulating earlier this month, MX Logic said. The virus writers appear to have remote control over the Sober.p infected machines, giving them a network from which to launch future spam and denial of service attacks, it added.

The latest sober variant is one of a relatively new type of "propaganda spam," meant to spread political messages rather than sell a product or service, MX Logic said. Circulation of the worm coincides with ceremonies marking the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe and examples of subject lines it sends include "Dresden 1945" and "Du wirst zum Sklaven gemacht!!!" ("You are made slaves!!!"), according to MX Logic.

"We are certainly seeing more propaganda spam," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant with Sophos PLC. Security researchers began detecting religious spam selling a particular view of life last year, Cluley added.

Although Sophos is seeing a lot of German-language spam sent by the new Sober variant, the worm itself doesn't appear to be spreading anymore, Cluley said.E-mail users are advised to update their spam filters to guard against the new Sober spam.

2005-05-17T04:14:00.000-07:00

Rakeman - Corporate Blogging for PR is a no-no (from: PubSub: Scoble): "

http://www.rakeman.net/blog/archives/000552.html

Weblog: Rakeman
Source: Corporate Blogging for PR is a no-no
Link: http://www.rakeman.net/blog/archives/000552.html

If you’re into PR or are trying to make a living out of blogging, then I guess you have mapped out the ‘Blogosphere’, at least from a perspective of where your money comes from, down to the last ramification. Not least, you’ll have an arsenal of arguments on why corporations should start blogging.

As far as I am concerned, there are two usages for blogs within the corporation. Knowledge Management and PR. Blogs in tandem with wikis are probably the most powerful KM tools that have ever been available to date. And the cheapest. I am convinced that had NASA used blogs ever since it was set up, unwanted CFIT would have been avoidable. Blogs are a knowledge reservoir.

As for PR, I really don’t see what good they can be. Corporate communications are untrustworthy. This runs against the very essence of blogging: readers turn to blogs for the truth. Corporations (or rather, their PR people) see blogs as a new means of communication. So even when comments are allowed - and often they are not - what kind of dialogue can companies expect to have with their customers?

A corporate blogger would really have to fight to be genuine. Microsoft’s Scoble is kinda trustworthy because he is was the little guy who was allowed to speak openly about whatever, but that is borderline at best. Somehow I don’t see a CEO or any other person higher up in the hierarchy being genuine and trustworthy. First, they’d never criticise their own company (and risk losing dosh over a falling stock) and then they can’t really bash the competition either because, hey, they could do that too.

Point made? Use blogs as a prime tool for building up your knowledge. Involve your customers. It’s a Grey Matter Catalyst (no TM on that btw). Don’t do PR in a blog format. If you want to do PR, simply show off your knowledge in the form of a blog. Or get rave reviews of your products or product experience.

Related…

(Via Scoble's Link Blog.)

2005-05-13T21:12:00.000-07:00

15 things you can do with RSS: "

Tim Yang, enumerates all the goodness of RSS in this easy to read guide. From getting the
weather to video clips to reading comics - Tim lists all the wonderful things that RSS brings to our lives. A
great guide to get started, and more importantly to answer the pesky people who keep asking you - what is the big
deal with this RSS thing anyway?

(Via The RSS Weblog.)

2005-05-13T21:07:00.000-07:00

SiliconValleyWatcher Launches ionRSS.com and New RSS Report by MarketingStudies.net: "The SiliconValleyWatcher is getting deep in to RSS coverage, and to make their launch even more exciting, we partnered on createing a free report on RSS titled The Elementary RSS Factor.

2005-05-13T21:06:00.000-07:00

10 Reasons Nonprofits Should Use RSS: "Being a nonprofit is hard enough. Trying to maintain your presence on the Web, well that is no piece of cake either. Rather than trying things that have been proven not to work, consider using RSS to help get your message out there for ya….

2005-05-13T21:05:00.000-07:00

The Role of RSS in Science Publishing: "The truth is, folks, there is more to RSS than many of us give the syndication format credit for. Don’t take my word for it though. No, instead take a look at this report that does a better job describing the RSS phenomenon than I ever could….

2005-05-13T20:56:00.000-07:00

Another corporate blog survey:
Backbone Media is taking a corporate blogging survey. It'll be interesting to see the results of this.
Of course, because it's respondents are self-selecting that'll make its result set pretty invalid.
(Via The Scobleizer Weblog.)

2005-05-13T20:55:00.000-07:00

No RSS feed? It's a genetic marker for "lame site":
OK, a few people have already written in and said that that Xbox site is lame not because it doesn't have an RSS feed but because it doesn't have any content.

Bing, bing, bing! You win $10 million. You're right!

'So, Scoble, if we're right, why are you being such a shmuck about RSS?'

Because not having an RSS feed is a genetic marker for a lame site.

Hear me out.

Look at the Xbox site again. It has no content, right? Well, add an orange XML icon to the site. What changes? A few things:

1) Now the site promises FUTURE content. Bing! Bing! Bing! New stuff gonna come. This site won't stay static. Static sites are lame. Don't believe me? Well, do some Google or MSN or Yahoo searches. Which sites invariably are at the top of the list? Sites that change often. Why is that? Why do sites like Engadget and Gizmodo have more traffic than most corporate home pages? Content changes often is the #1 thing.

2) If you don't have an RSS feed, your site is lame because you've told the connectors (er, superusers, er influentials) that they don't matter. When I see a site that doesn't have an RSS feed I see a site that says 'Mr. Scoble you aren't welcome here and we don't ever want you to come back again.'

3) Sites, like the Xbox one, that try to get customers to sign up and give an email address to get new content are telling customers 'hey, we wanna spam you and we want our spam to be mixed in with all those Viagra spams you get. In fact, if you really are an advanced user we want our content to be shoved into your 'junk' folder. Yes, our content is junk.' Do you really want to be saying that? An RSS subscription, on the other hand, goes where +I+ want it to go. Hint: that's not into the junk folder.

So, marketers, if you are being compensated for building lame sites, keep on building sites without RSS feeds. My readers might see them as lame for other reasons, but not having an RSS feed is a genetic marker for 'lame site.'

Oh, and don't think that very well funded and very advanced sites can't be lame. Steve Wynn's is an example. He built a multi-billion-dollar casino in Las Vegas that opened recently. This morning I wanted to find a place to have breakfast. I was lost on his site. It took 60 seconds just to start it up (it's all in Flash). And, once in, I couldn't find a restaurant that would serve breakfast. Even if I could, I wouldn't have been able to link you into the restaurant directly. Lame, lame, lame. Again, what's the genetic marker? No RSS feed.

(Via The Scobleizer Weblog.)

2005-05-13T20:54:00.000-07:00

More about RSS and marketing sites:

Oh, high flow days are always fun. I'm off to go to Las Vegas. Some quick points. First, existing sites get a bit of a pass. Why? Because it'd cost money/time to go back and rejigger those to have RSS. But, we gotta start somewhere. New sites don't get a pass, sorry.

Second, yeah, you can have a lame site with an RSS feed too. But, at least you won't have me saying it's lame for not having an RSS feed.

Third, most marketing sites exist to build relationships with customers. You think most businesses spend all that money to only have you visit once? Yeah, right. The only way a company can become profitable is have you visit again and again and again. Look at Amazon. Unprofitable for the first few years in business, but now that they have lots of repeat and return customers they are profitable.

Yeah, Amazon doesn't have RSS. But, the bar is higher now than it was in 1998 (just like the bar in 1998 was higher than it was in 1989).

It's time for new marketing sites to get onto Team RSS. In 1994 the new way to build a relationship with customers was with a Web site. In 2005 it's by having a Web site and an RSS feed.

Where this is all heading

2005-05-13T20:41:00.000-07:00

So I have been tinkering around with Blogger for a few days. I have set up my NetNewsWire and MarsEdit to post to this blogger account, and have been pretty happy with the results.

For the next few weeks, I will be using this blog as a repository for material that I find related to RSS and its uses in Marketing and PR, as well as information about blogging from that same perspective.

You are welcome to follow along if you like.

2005-05-12T12:11:00.000-07:00

Microsoft's Share of Browser Market Slips (AP): "AP - Microsoft Corp.'s share of the U.S. browser market has slipped below 90 percent as the Firefox browser continues to grow in popularity, according to independent tracking by WebSideStory." (Via Yahoo! News: Technology.)

2005-05-12T11:48:00.000-07:00

Lucas Reimagined Movie Tech, Then Sold It (AP): "AP - After filming the first 'Star Wars' movie with special effects far from special, George Lucas spent millions to develop a complete digital editing system to populate his sequels with armies of X-wing fighters and Gungan warriors. Then, he virtually gave it away."

(Via Yahoo! News: Technology.)

2005-05-12T11:43:00.000-07:00

Create Your Own Podcasts (washingtonpost.com)

2005-05-12T11:39:00.000-07:00

Boingo's Wi-Fi Access Takes Flight (PC World): "PC World - Company will offer in-flight Internet access to its hot spot customers."
(Via Yahoo! News: Technology - Internet.)

2005-05-12T11:37:00.000-07:00

Google ponders Blogger, Gmail integration: "also: privacy options and native photo uploading [via] "

(Via Waxy.org Links.)

2005-05-12T11:33:00.000-07:00

Google Learns How to Play Dodgeball (PC World): "PC World - Search giant acquires Dodgeball.com, a text-messaging/social networking service."

(Via Yahoo! News: Technology - Internet.)