Searching is a multi-billion-dollar industry … finding the right signals of quality is the key

When evaluating a page to assign rank, search engines look at a host of signals of quality that might provide clues to what a page is about and the value of its content.

One such signal of quality that we can safely identify is the number of inbound links to a page from reputable sources. If a page has a number of good inbound links to it, then it is likely that it has high quality content and therefore should be ranked high when displaying relevant search returns.

This particular signal of quality is what allowed Google to rise to the top in the business of search engines while other search algorithms were looking at less reliable signals of quality. Obviously, looking at the right signals of quality is of utmost importance in the multi-billion-dollar search industry. [My comment: Wow! It makes sense now that I think about it, but until I read this I never really thought about "searching" as being such a valuable thing: "multi-billion-dollar search industry."]

– Building Findable Websites by Aaron Walter

My recipe for pretty healthy Sticky Toffee Pudding

Here is the traditional recipe for Sticky Toffee Pudding: http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_8781,00.html

As you can see, it uses a lot of butter and sugar.

Last night I made a modified version of the recipe. I must say, it was quite possibly the best tasting dessert I have ever had!

Pretty Healthy Sticky Toffee Pudding

• 1/2 c. pastry flour
• 1/2 c. plus 1 tbsp. white flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 3/4 c. finely chopped dates
• 1 1/4 c. boiling water
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 c. canola oil
• 1/3 c. granulated sugar
• 1/4 tsp. stevia
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp. vanilla

Toffee Sauce

• 1/2 c. canola oil
• 1/2 c. heavy cream
• 1/2 c. packed brown sugar
• 1/4 tsp. stevia

Pudding (cake) Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Butter an 8-inch square glass pan.
2. Mix the flours and baking powder in a bowl.
3. In a separate bowl, pour the boiling water over the dates, and stir in the baking soda.
4. In a third bowl mix the oil, granulated sugar, stevia, egg, and vanilla.
5. Gradually beat in the flour mixture into the oil mixture.
6. Add the date mixture to the batter and mix.
7. Pour into the prepared baking dish.
8. Bake until the pudding (cake) is done. The recipe above says to bake for 35 minutes, but I had to bake it for 52 minutes.
9. Remove from oven, remove the pudding (cake) from the pan, and put it on a pan that you can put in the broiler.
10. Spoon about 1/3 c. of the toffee sauce evenly over the top.
11. Place pudding (cake) under the broiler for 1 minute, until the topping is bubbly.
12. Serve immediately, with whip cream on top, and toffee sauce drizzled on the whip cream.

Toffee Sauce: (prepare this while the pudding (cake) is in the oven)

1. In a sauce pan combine the oil, heavy cream, brown sugar, and stevia.
2. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly.
3. Once it’s at a boil, reduce heat to medium, and cook for 8 minutes, stirring constantly.
4. Turn off the heat, and let sit while the pudding (cake) finishes cooking. It will thicken (that’s good).

Use the Geo-Tag Generator to put location — geo — data in your web pages to enhance regional search requests

This web site provides a free online tool that automatically generates HTML <meta> tags containing geo (lat/lon) data:

http://www.geo-tag.de/generator/en.html

It has a form that you simply fill in with your data and out pops the <meta> tags. For example, I filled in the data for Boston and here are the <meta> tags that were automatically generated:

<meta name=”DC.title” content=”Boston” />
<meta name=”geo.region” content=”US-MA” />
<meta name=”geo.placename” content=”Boston” />
<meta name=”geo.position” content=”37.09024;-95.712891″ />
<meta name=”ICBM” content=”37.09024, -95.712891″ />

Here’s a section of the web page which describes the value of embedding geo metadata into your web pages:

What are Geo-Tags for?

According to a survey of The Kelsey Group (Princeton, NJ, USA) from the year 2004, 25% of all commercial online searches are local searches. It understandably makes little sense to look for a baker and find one who has his shop in a completely different town. Today search engines are already able to handle regional search requests, gathering city and street names from the text content of the explored web pages. Geo tags will simplify this task since they provide machine-readable information about country, region and exact latitude/longitude coordinates.

Simplify the markup in your webpage, and increase its search engine rank

“Search engines look for semantic markup with a high ratio of content to code.” [Building Findable Websites by Aarron Walter]

For example, this is not good design:

<div>

<div id=”Main”>

<p>Hello World</p>

</div>

</div>

The outer div is providing no benefit.  It can be more simply expressed as:

<div id=”Main”>

<p>Hello World</p>

</div>

This provides a higher ratio of content to code (tags).  And from the quote above, search engines rank higher documents with a higher ratio of content to code.

Assume it’s “easy until proven difficult”

I saw this phase in a book I am reading¹: “easy until proven difficult”

It occurs to me that oftentimes I approach a task assuming that it is complex and difficult. The result is I solve the task in a complex fashion. It is only later that I see how to simplify it. Then, after removing all the complexities that I unnecessarily added, I realize that the task was actually simple. Perhaps if I go into a task assuming that it is “easy until proven difficult” I can bypass adding unnecessary complications.

[1] Logic for Dummies by Mark Zegarelli

Massive scalability: you want many to work together, without telling them to work together

“To scale massively you don’t want to store anything centrally. You want many to work together, without telling them to work together: decentralized synchronization to achieve information accessibility.”

– Tim Kehoe

The difference between Web sites and Web applications?

There is a lot of discussion these days about the Web moving from being document-based to application based.  Here is a section from Jeremy Keith’s book Bulletproof Ajax which talks about this:

In discussions about the difference between Web sites and Web applications, you’ll often hear about how the Web seems to be in a state of transition.  It appears to be moving from a document-delivery platform to an application-based system.  But this is a disingenuous distinction; it implies that applications aren’t centered on documents.

In fact, documents are at the heart of applications as well as Web sites.  A work processor is useless without a document.  A spreadsheet application requires a spreadsheet.  Even a complex desktop application like Adobe Photoshop works on documents; the documents just happen to be images.

The difference between Web sites and Web applications lie in how malleable a document is.  A traditional Web site simply displays a document.  A Web application lets you interact with — and change — that document.  But make no mistake: the World Wide Web is based on documents, no matter how interactive they become.

Walk while you work! Work the body and mind simultaneously!

Every morning I spend an hour on my stationary bike.  I read as I pedal.  I get my best thinking during that time.  I am convinced that it is due to the movement of the blood throughout my body and brain.

A few years ago, on the TV program 60 Minutes, they featured a Mayo clinic doctor - Dr. James Levine - who rigged a treadmill with a keyboard and monitor.  He sets the treadmill to a very slow pace, 1 mile per hour, and walks while he works on his computer!  Recently he was productized this idea, into a product called a Walkstation.

When I have a lot of reading to do for work, I hop on my stationary bike for hours, sometimes up to 5 hours.  Unfortunately, that gives me a very sore read-end.  It’s time to buy a treadmill and rig it with my keyboard and monitor!

Links and Forms: the fundamental building blocks of the Web

The Web is built around links and forms.

Links enable us to get information.  The mechanism for achieving links is HTTP GET.

Forms enable us to send information.  The mechanism for achieving forms is HTTP POST.

The world’s leading crop is sugarcane

The modern world’s leading crop is sugarcane.  Its annual tonnage nearly equals that of the number two and number three crops combined (wheat and corn).

– Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond