Top Internet Strategy, Marketing & Technology Links – Jan 15, 2010

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A colleague of mine, also a freelance writer, deleted his blog last weekend. When I asked him why, he cited comment trolls as the primary reason as to why he had to shut it down. “I wanted to showcase my work,” he said, “not spend a few minutes a day feeling annoyed.”. – How to Deal With Trolls on Your Professional Blog (WebWorkerDaily)

The fear of trolls is nothing new. I run across it just about every time I suggest a discussion board or blog or any other technology which allows other people to give feedback. Yes, you probably will have to deal with a troll from time to time, but that’s no reason to stick your head in the sand and refuse to come out. These days comment software is pretty good at filtering out spam. The occasional troll may get through – and yes, you may have to do some moderation, but the benefits of having conversations online will almost always be worth the effort.

LG says it’s betting heavily on Android to help the handset maker build its smartphone business, a move that contrasts starkly with last year’s vow to make Microsoft’s Windows Mobile its primary operating system. But in doing so, LG joins a small army of fellow manufacturers that have shifted their focus away from Microsoft’s mobile OS — among them HTC , Sony Ericsson,Motorola and Palm — and, with the lone exception of Palm, toward Android.. – How Microsoft Can Get Back in the Mobile Game (GigaOM)

Mobile is going to be big. (It is kinda big already.) People want to be connected a good portion of the time and laptops are too inconvenient to take everywhere. Apple has a phone and Google has several. Microsoft needs to stay in this game to stay competitive. Mobile search will also be big – people will want to find things while they’re away from their desk – much of which will be location-aware. It should be interesting to see how this plays out.

Ideally, you want to keep your web copy as short and simple as possible. However, there are situations where long copy is necessary to give readers the information they need to make an informed buying decision. Thankfully, there are several things you can do to streamline long copy so that it’s more readable. Get stared by following these tips. – How to Make Long Web Copy More Readable (SEO Hosting)

I’m not a big fan of long copy online. I just don’t think people read more than a “page” or so. But there are situations when you do have a lot of copy. When you do, it helps to break it up with subheadings and images. SEO Hosting has some other good tips as well. These tips also work for copy that’s more than a few paragraphs (which isn’t necessarily long for a blog post).

Google has made an adjustment to the way it handles display URLs for AdWords ads. This is the URL that appears within the ad itself, that users see before they click on it. The adjustment is for sites that sit on shared or hosted domains. – Google Now Rejecting AdWords Ads Without Proper Display (WebProNews)

Google has changes the guidelines regarding the URLs which display within the ads. It’s not a huge change and it seems to be mostly to protect the people who view and click on the ads. The display URL (the one that shows in the ad) has to accurately represent the URL which the user will ultimately land on if they click on the ad. Fairly simple and helps get rid of a lot of junk as far as consumers are concerned.

It’s a bold experiment in social marketing, but it is also risky. Not helping matters is the fact that the Pepsi Refresh site isn’t working properly. An attempt to submit an idea resulted in a database error. But even worse, applicants’ personal information was compromised. – Social Marketing Gone Awry: Pepsi Refresh Needs To Refresh Its Security Settings (TechCrunch)

I feel a little for whoever developed the Pepsi Refresh site. They’re certainly in panic mode right now. But I do think that the security and technical aspects of any endeavor need to be considered. And as someone who has worked in IT for years – we’re often the last to know when Marketing launches something. And they then wonder why we’re annoyed… Anyway, sorry for the rant. Just make sure you test things out and have someone who understands the tech behind whatever you’re trying to do. Get IT involved sooner rather than later (thanks!).

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