Top Internet Strategy, Marketing & Technology Links – Feb 3, 2010

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By now, we’ve all seen the iPad and know just about everything about it that we possibly can. But did you know that the secretive company may actually be hard at work on a second device already? Now, before I say anything else, take this information with a grain of salt. – Rumor: Apple Has Another Tablet In The Works. More Like A Mac Than An iPhone. (TechCrunch)

The supposed 2nd iPad device is more like a tablet PC than an ebook reader, which is something I might be very interested in buying. One of my major concerns with the current iPad is that it doesn’t do enough to replace my MacBook, and is too close to what my iPhone can do (what niche does it fill for me?) – so just being cool isn’t good enough. We shall see…

Trying to ward off regulators, the advertising industry has agreed on a standard icon — a little “i” — that it will add to most online ads that use demographics and behavioral data to tell consumers what is happening. – A Little ‘i’ to Teach About Online Privacy (NYTimes)

As a consumer, I’m less worried about companies serving ads based upon my browsing information on their site than companies selling my email address. I think it’s nice that advertisers have come up with an icon to let consumers know what’s going on. How about letting us see what you know about us?

There’s been a fair amount of coverage recently about the ins and outs, good and evil, usefulness and rudeness of customer rating and reviews sites. No matter how you feel about these social recommendation sites, if you own a small business of any kind, it’s time to get serious about figuring out and playing the game. – 5 Ways to Rock Customer Review Sites (Duct Tape Marketing)

If you have a business where people use search engines to find you, it’s time to get serious about these customer review sites. Duct Tape has some good tips. These review sites mean that any size business may have consumers talking about them online. Just because you’re not involved in the conversation doesn’t mean it’s not happening. By taking control of your listings, listening to the reviews and engaging your customers you can improve your online and offline reputation.

Microsoft is many things, but one thing it’s not is a successful web company. And it’s time Redmond faced up to that. – Google Ends Free WiFi At Airports (Silicon Alley Insider)

The details of what Google was doing are a little lean on Silicon Alley Insider. It looks like Google providing free wifi over the holidays at many airports and on one airline. I believe users of the free wifi were asked to make a donation. $500 Million was raised for charities. Pretty nice.

It’s a well-known fact in the SEO world that Google shows enormous favoritism in its rankings to domain names that contain one or more of the keywords being searched for. If your domain name is a close match to the search keywords all glued together, it’s as easy as fishing with dynamite to get on page 1 of the SERPs for that search phrase. While some (like me) might argue (like, against Rand) that it’s a flaw in the algorithm, it’s not a bug–Google deliberately favors this kind of match. – It’s a Feeding Frenzy for Keyword-Rich Domains (SEOmoz)

I have to agree – highly ranking domain names with keywords is silly. Anyone can purchase a domain and it has little to do with the content or usability of the site. Maybe something Google can fix with Caffeine?

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