All Is Quiet On New Gear Day (Today Is iPhone Day)
Jun 29, 2007 Geeks and Gadgets
Apologies to U2 for the title (or not since they aided in the iPod culture). Just wait though, I’m only getting started with my bad cliches. It seems that as the 11th hour approaches of the second coming of Jesus the iPod in is transfigured form as a phone–that the blogs, the forums, and all the news sources that have been fueling this fire with more hype and excitement than a…(hell you try to finish that analogy), it appears that there is a momentary lull in not just iPhone news but tech news in general. This morning my RSS reader was popping up iPhone headlines like Hugh Hefner pops Viagra. But in the past hour or so, it almost appears that all that can be said has been said, and bloggers realized this and stopped reporting on the iPhone. Now I’m here in ultimate irony to report this obvious occurence that even the lack of iPhone news is news to the Church of Jobs.
Yes, it is strangely quiet. And now everyone is just waiting for “the event” to happen.
Who can forget the giant UFO’s in ID4 that hovered over a group of “believers” for quite some time with no real warning of what was to come. The believers all carried signs, drank the kool-aid, had a “waiting” party and wanted their unknown visitors to “choose” them for what they thought was going to be quite the joyride through the galaxy. Then, when the doors of the ship finally opened, one oblivious observer proclaimed “It’s beautiful!”. What was beautiful was the charging glow of the ultimate weapon that would ultimately take the life of the believers as well as half the city they lived in. The irony was the true beauty.
So as we wait for the doors to open, what will be the true beauty? The actual product itself, or the near perfect execution in which Apple marketed this device to its cult-like followers? What will truly happen when those doors open? Will this device really transform the mobile landscape as we know it or will it just be another carrier-limited toy that will only appeal to a small percentage of the actual cellular market?
Yes, I want an iPhone. But I’m going to wait this round out as they figure that people actually do care about MMS, video capture, and faster than dial-up data networks. Instead, I’ll sit at home and watch reports report about the opening of the first Apple Store’s doors. I bet we’ll hear a glorious “Laaaaaa” of an Angel chorus when Steve shows up.
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SMX Seattle Shouts, Vol 2: SEOmoz Takes Seattle By Storm
Jun 8, 2007 Search and SEO
[This post is continued from SMX Seattle Shouts, Vol 1]
Probably the biggest and most pleasing surprise about the SMX show in Seattle was the representation of SEOmoz and members of their online community. Mozzers were out in full force!
For those who don’t know, SEOmoz is an independent internet marketing firm that specializes in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Social Media Marketing (SMM). They have 8 employees and are based out of Seattle. They are often cited by national press seeking commentary on the industry. But what really sets them apart from other firms is the industry portal that they built and the online community that participates in that portal. I personally have been a member of the SEOmoz community for at least two years now.
At most conferences you typically find yourself in conversation after conversation about “What do you do?” However, at SMX Seattle, I quickly found myself approaching and replying with “Hi, I’m Jason Murphy. Or roadies on SEOmoz.” It was very surprising to see how many people knew me as roadies.
So, this blog post is to all the Mozzers out there that I met up with at SMX Seattle.
First to the actual SEOmoz crew themselves. I had opportunities to chat for a bit with Scott (great_scott), Rebecca (rebecca), Jeff (Fluxx) and Jane (JaneCopland). I missed both Matt and Rand this time around, but was very impressed by the rest of the team. Even if I didn’t get an invite to the exclusive party. (Psst…I’m only joking. I intentionally missed it and for good reason, of which I think you’ll thank me later.)
And then, to all the SEOmoz community members I met. I know I met more people than I’m listing here, but these are all the usernames I can remember. (If I forgot your username and we met at SMX, please let me know in the comments and I’ll add you to the post.) So, in no particular order, shouts to…
…Pat from FeedTheBot. On SEOmoz he’s also feedthebot. Watch out for Patrick, he’s quickly becoming a known personality in this industry and is just realizing his potential. Not only did he single handedly persuade Google to update their guidelines within 24 hours (or else!), but he also has some mad Seattle-Hobo-Management skillz.
…Raffi from a niche online retailer. On SEOmoz, he has the coolest username: kwijibo – which I can’t recall the definition but it came from the remaining pieces of Scrabble being played by Bart Simpson to make the most unique word ever. Friggin awesome.
…Lisa from Base One Search, SEOblog, and of course SEO Chicks. On the Moz she is well known as Lisadit and pondskipped a long way from her European home to make it to the Seattle conference. I sat next to Lisa during one of the sessions, during which she showed me the piece of blackmail that she has on Rand. Genius picture, Lisa!
…Ciarán from Eyefall, also from the U.K., and is also ciaran on SEOmoz. I only had a brief intro with Ciarán but it’s always great meeting familiar SEOmoz bystanders offline for the first time. It’s only a matter of time before SEOmoz makes Ciarán a regular blog editor.
…Chris-Hooley from NextStudent. He’s known as SearchStudent on SEOmoz, but really known as a dude who knows how to party!
…Curtis from Superb Internet. He just recently started getting active with SEOmoz (as CRCurtis) because he saw how cool Mozzers are. We met briefly and discussed CPA networks and hosting (if I recall). Welcome to the Moz club Curtis!
Seriously cool people in this industry. I’m lucky to be working in it. I know I’m forgetting a few people, so please let me know…
A group of us, including Kwijibo and feedthebot, and Beau and Jay from my first post, hung out on Monday night and listened to bad karaoke, dodged flying hobos, watched a street scrap, and ate some of the best corner-vendor dogs on the whole west coast. It was a seriously great time. Vegas, fellas. Let’s do it again!
SMX Seattle Shouts, Vol 1
Jun 8, 2007 Search and SEO
Recently I had the opportunity to visit Seattle, the second greatest city in the US, for the Search Marketing Expo Advanced show. I had a fantastic time!
As much as I could go on and on about how much I really love the town and the community of Seattle (I used the live there in the Kingdome days), I’d have to say that the people I met on this trip were what really made it just a positive experience for me. So, to continue the tradition I started with Affiliate Summit, I’d like to leave a few shouts (and links!) to the people I met that made this show a success for me.
In no particular order, shouts to…
…Francis and Todd from MPS Group. I hung out a lot with Todd during the event, especially the first day as we were waiting for the events to commence. Francis (Frank) joined us later that night at the Microsoft party. Talking with them both was very cool as they are facing similar tech issues with their company as I am with mine.
…Matt D. and Bernard (who happens to be Francis’ brother) from the Microsoft Adcenter team. I met a few other people from the Adcenter team but can’t recall names. It was great talking about everything from Advertising on the Xbox to Brazillian BBQ with these guys.
…Marcel and Nish from the Google Webmaster Central team. I met these guys at lunch and shared a few ideas with them. I didn’t get to ask if they participated in the GWC blog or not, or if they had their own. But it was still nice to meet members of the GWC team, as I’m a huge supporter of that group.
…a good friend and ally Michael Stark from PostYourProperty.com. We always seem to bump into each other at the same conferences and are always able to have a enjoyable conversation about business and home. It’s always a pleasure Mike and may we meet up again at future shows.
…Jay Westerdal from AboutUs and DomainTools. I’ve been a long time user of DomainTools, ever since their whois.sc days even. In my role, DomainTools has been nothing short of a lifesaver. So it was great to meet up with someone from the DomainTools team. Jay was a ton of fun to hang out with and talk with, this guy knows so much about the IP-space that it is enough to make the room spin. I am definitely going to put a pitch into my company to attend the Domain Roundtable in August. It’s in Seattle so of course I HAVE to go!
…Beau Vignes from ghotibait. Not only is this guy a brilliant designer, but he’s also the most chill guy I’ve ever met at one of these things, not to mention man enough to drink pink drinks!
…Aaron Wall and his girlfriend, Honey. I don’t want to get her name wrong, Aaron was calling her Honey so I will to. I’m sure they’ll be ok with it. 
Aaron and Honey are conference veterans and even though they seem to know everyone, they were happy to meet new people. I bought Aaron’s book years ago, and always enjoy his updates that seem to be dead on accurate with industry trends. It was great to finally meet up, and yeah I’ll get more involved with my ThreadWatch account.
…Jim Boykin from WeBuildPages.com. I hope everything pans out for your Grand Canyon retreat, because I’ve been wanting to become a certified Link Ninja for sometime now.
…Dot A. from Domainer’s Magazine. We only met for a few minutes but what great discussion about the state of the industry! I’ve been working my way to becoming a domainer for sometime now, and the talk that we had was very inspiring, thanks Dot!
…Terry Light who has the coolest title ever: Idiot In Charge. He’s the force behind SearchEngineIdiot.com and from the sounds of it has a few interesting projects in the works.
…Paul B. from Anvil Media. We sat through lunch with table full of genius Google engineers…and survived without our heads exploding. Great to meet you Paul and hopefully we can do some work together.
…Mindy S. and Herman C. from All Star Directories. Both Mindy and Herman were at the same lunch table with the Googlers, and we enjoyed discussing the CPA world (which was refreshing in a PPC heavy environment). Hopefully we’ll be able to do some win-win business together in the near future.
Well, that is all for now. I have many many more shouts to do, but will have to do that in a second post.
