I’ve decided to add my disdain to Google’s request to Twitter to add a nofollow to links contained within the bio section of user profiles.

Rae Hoffman is not afraid to stand-up for what’s right, and I’m happy to lend my support. In case you missed the story, here’s what happened.

The “web” link has always been a nofollow link, but the bio links passed popularity until Dave Naylor exposed it, which alerted Matt Cutts (a Google engineer) who sent a tweet to @ev (a twitter founder) about Dave’s forementioned post and *poof* bio links were nofollowed.

I’m particularly annoyed because nofollow is supposed to be used on links where you do not wish to vouch for the link–at least by passing PageRank. However, my profile at Twitter was built by me, promoted by me, and any incoming links are the result of my hard work to build a community around it. As Rae points out, Twitter is benefiting from those incoming links, so why can’t I?

So, why would Twitter give-in so easily to Google? I’ll let Rae have the last word:

I find it hard to believe that @biz (another twitter founder) and @ev would not feel their users deserved ALL the benefits of being active on Twitter and helping them build their own popularity and brand. I find it easier to believe that maybe Google wanted these links nofollowed in an effort to make up for their inadequacies and like the many others in Silicon Valley, Twitter has no interest to be made an example of. But who knows? Only they can answer.

An even bigger question for me is, if, IF, Google is really coercing companies like Twitter based on threats of dropping them from their index for non-compliance, at what point does someone decide that due to Google’s reach and power, that doing so is no longer a case of “guidelines” but rather one of blackmail?

UPDATE: It’s probably only fair that we link to Matt Cutt’s post about the matter.

Pilgrim’s Partners: Is a blogger attacking your company without you knowing? Monitor your online reputation with Andy Beal’s Trackur–try it for free!

Original post:
Google Bullies Twitter Into Adding Nofollow

If you didn’t catch last night’s airing of the new Microsoft TV ads, featuring Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates, you can watch it below:

Microsoft execs say that the ad is designed to start a discussion and that future ads will feature more information about Microsoft’s actual products.

Leave a comment and let me know your thoughts. Whether you love it or hate it, you can’t deny that it has everyone talking about Microsoft.

Here is the original post:
Watch the Jerry Seinfeld/Bill Gates TV Ad - Boring or Brilliant?

If you’ve paid attention to my advice about selecting your social networking profile name, you’ve likely carefully made your choice.

Well be warned; Bebo will change your profile name without notice and without any input from you.

Take a look at this email I recently received from Bebo:

=======

Andy Beal,

Your username has been changed by a Bebo administrator for security purposes. Sorry for the inconvenience.

New Username: AndyBeal_*******

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Please do not reply directly to this email.

If you have a question about the Bebo service:

1) Read our Help page by clicking - http://www.bebo.com/Help. This will probably answer your question about Bebo.

2) If you still have a question, then please contact us with your question by clicking - http://www.bebo.com/ContactUs

Bebo, Inc., 795 Folsom St, 6th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94107, USA.

===========

Outrageous? You tell me.

It’s been a couple of days since I requested an explanation from Bebo folks, but apparently they don’t even care to respond. The only saving grace is that I wasn’t using Bebo for Google reputation management, so the change inflicts little damage for me.

Let this be a warning. Don’t ever rely 100% on your social networking profile for brand building. Bebo–and perhaps others–can and will change your profile without warning.

PS. Did this happen to you? It’s happened to others.

Read the original:
Warning: Bebo Will Change Your Profile Without Warning or Input

As noted by Andy Beal earlier today there appears to be some unnecessary alarmism regarding the current state on online ad spends. I say unnecessary because as we have noted on another occasion the media really has a twisted sense of when the sky is falling. According to the Wall Street Journal today there is actually cause for celebration from the 2nd quarter numbers for Internet advertising rose 20%. So what’s your take? Should we panic and go back to smoke signals or just struggle through a sluggish 20% growth cycle?

I can’t take this anymore! What I liked most about the WSJ take on this news was where advertisers were focusing their spend. This was actually valuable because it appears that while we fly ahead towards Web x.0 (insert your favorite version) people who like to advertise to other people who like to buy their products are spending more on – GASP! – text ads in search engines. It’s on track for $10.4 billion this year. This is double what will be spent on display ads and the gap is widening.

As an example take Creditcards.com which is referred to as typical. They spent $30 million on online marketing last year. By the way, since I usually work with the SMB (small medium business) market a $30 million spend is not typical at all but I digress. Some of that budget last year was used to experiment with buying display ads and now this year that experiment will be halted and those dollars redirected to – you guessed it – search ads. Apparently the ROI on the display ads didn’t cut it.

With more than 70% of the US search-ad market, Google is smiling bigger than ever. This news comes on the tail of their Chrome browser beta this week. World domination is just around the corner apparently. The article continues with a lot of spin from the likes of Yahoo!, AOL and Microsoft to say that display advertising is not suffering like it seems because (insert lame PR excuse here).

The part that was distressing to me going back to point earlier about the small business search marketer is that there is an apparent cutting back in this segment around number of keywords being purchased. I personally just see that as small business folks not wanting to waste money on poorly converting terms while letting the big boys spend as freely as ever. One man’s opinion. John Aiken of Majestic Research notes that more ads are showing up for some keywords and suggests that Google is “potentially stretching for dollars”. Google’s response was that in many cases it just has more ads to show because of the volume.

It’s up to us as internet marketers to cut through this stuff and do the next right thing. Just continue doing search marketing because it works. What a novel idea, huh?

See more here:
The Real News About Online Advertising

LinkedIn.com - a social site for professionals - is partnering with CNBC to integrate news and other content. LinkedIn has over 27 million members but until now has had very little community-buildling or social networking features.

Currently on LinkedIn you can email other professionals, ask them questions, and give or get recommendations from people in your network. Now you’ll also be able to share information with them - something that is happening informally anyway.

One way to build up your network is to send relevant news stories, blog posts, or videos that you think they’ll benefit from. With this partnership, that could be easier if the content is on CNBC. On CNBC’s site there is a section devoted to LinkedIn - though right now it’s at the very bottom of the page and it’s a poll. To answer the poll, you must be a member of LinkedIn.

Perhaps the most exiting part of this agreement is that CNBC will broadcast information gathered from LinkedIn on their programs. So the results of surveys will be covered on the news (on tv).

In a blog post about the deal, LinkedIn CEO Dan Nye asked for any ideas, so here’s one. I would use LinkedIn Answers as the basis for new stories or feature articles to cover what’s going on in business.

For example, Jason Alba, CEO of Jibberjobber.com, a site that focuses on building your career through networking, asked his LinkedIn network and community, how they are being personally affected by the economy.

CNBC.com could run a feature article on how the recession is affecting workers and quote from some of the best answers. If you were featured in the article, it should show up somewhere on your LinkedIn profile with a link and recognition that you were quoted in a story. In could help build the reputation of members of LinkedIn, which could in turn help their job searches and careers.

There is a link to today’s poll on CNBC that asks how the economy is affecting job security. It asks: Is your job impacted by current economic conditions? and then it said you must be a registered LinkedIn member to participate.

The poll also shows up on my LinkedIn profile. After voting I can see the results like that men and women answered simliarly that they are either worried or there is no change. However, it clearly shows that professionals over 55 are the most nervous about losing their jobs right now.

Jason says the relationship is especially good for LinkedIn: “This is a great relationship for LinkedIn, as it really helps differentiate the offerings from Facebook and other social networks. LinkedIn has a special userbase, and the CNBC relationship could add valueable content to LinkedIn users as well as get more members from CNBC’s audience. This is a huge win for LinkedIn.” Alba is the author of I’m on LinkedIn — Now What???

I’m sure the relationship will continue to evolve. And if this relationship proves valuable for the LinkedIn community, Jason may need to add another chapter to his book.

Pilgrim’s Partners: Is a blogger attacking your company without you knowing? Monitor your online reputation with Andy Beal’s Trackur–try it for free!

See more here:
LinkedIn Partners with CNBC