Below is a 1 take video I did, without my first cup of coffee, with my co-presenter Sage Lewis to help you get a taste of all you will learn. Check this link to get all the details for the class:
http://www.searchenginestrategies.com/chicago/training.html

Think Global, Act Local Training Class: Search Engine Strategies (SES) Chicago - December 3-7, 2007

Versions 3.15
* Enables SearchReviews opt-in and configuration options for all users.
See: Toolbar -> Tools -> Toolbar Options -> Configuration tab -> Web Search

On previous versions of the Stumbleupon Toolbar you were presented with a choice as to whether or not you wanted your Google Search results injected with Stumbled info. The problem this time comes from the fact that even if you don’t want your Google results to be altered by StumbleUpon and you Opt-Out of this in your settings, you are still presented with an altered version of Google in a very sly way.

Here are the StumbleUpon settings, set to NOT alter your search results:

However, even with these settings turned off, a search on Google still produces a nice little link up at the top that reads See Friend Reviews in the same font as Google up with the rest of the Google Account Options.

This spyware-like behavior is also found on Ask, Yahoo, and MSN.

Wikipedia defines spyware as:

Spyware is computer software that is installed surreptitiously on a personal computer to intercept or take partial control over the user’s interaction with the computer, without the user’s informed consent.

– Wikipedia Definition

It’s fairly obvious that I’ve tried my best (short of uninstalling) to deny my consent to this behavior and though they state upfront that you are opting-in, the ‘configuration options’ section and options within would lead most users to thinking they could disable this “feature”. That, however is not the case and thus starts to blur the line between what is acceptable behavior in regards to your user information and what is actually spyware. Now it’s known that Stumbling is fun and that it can drive traffic and whatnot but surely they could come up with something better than this.

That said if you’re a fan of Stumbling you’re probably wondering:

How to disable StumbleUpon’s “See Friend Reviews” on Google, Yahoo, MSN, and Ask.com

You have 5 options to disable this unwanted behavior:

1. Uninstall the Toolbar.
2. Have patience. The link will disappear on it’s own after three weeks.
3. Get click happy. It will disappear after it’s been clicked three times regardless of your other actions.
4. OBEY. This link will also go away if you sell your soul to Satan and complete the contact import.
5. Go for Beta. The beta version of StumbleUpon will allow you to disable the prompt via the “Show StumbleUpon prompts and logos” checkbox on the Configuration tab of the Toolbar Options dialog

Now 5 different options of getting rid of this atrocity is more than Gator will give you. However all of these remain unpublished and unpromoted solutions to this problem. The fact is that even though they might garner some information which makes stumbling better and also new users from this approach, it’s obviously setup to benefit them way more than it would benefit the end user. And when you start digging around trying to figure out different ways to get rid of unwanted behavior from your favorite toolbar, you really have to start questioning it’s intentions in the first place.

UPDATE (11-25-07): It appears that version 3.16 of the Firefox StumbleUpon toolbar includes an OPT-OUT for this. Problem solved. Now you only have it if you want it, which is really how it should be.

1. Most of you come off looking like slimy infomercials or at best, bad Mac vs. PC ripoffs
2. There’s not much that you could cover in a video that I couldn’t absorb faster by reading.
3. I look/feel horrible on film

Regardless of my reservations, some people are into videos and worse comes to worse, occasionally I must oblige and be a part of them. That said, in watching this, the facts are still applicable but hopefully I’ll be able to overcome my personal reservations and someone, somewhere will benefit. So behold, my first, and yes completely impromptu interview with Sage Lewis of Web Marketing Watch:

Social Media Optimization Interview:

I hope my headache isn’t too obvious and that I was able to hold it together for you…

That said today’s news of Google slashing PR on several “authority” sites across the web has web marketers across the land up in arms. Meanwhile, I’m laughing, enjoying the last of this year’s Nosferatu and thinking of how this whole game is a lot like Calvinball…

Well, it leaves them no better off than they were a year ago to be honest. Most people, though they may have heard of Facebook or MySpace or whatever, are no better off than they may have been well over a year ago before the marketplace was flooded by Web 2.0 wannabes. Now instead of trying to figure out how to leverage these spaces to their advantage, they are left to try to sort out the myriad of social sites for which there is no guidebook. What’s more popular… Netscape or Zimbo?

Though we, as web marketers might know the answer, the real truths for anyone involved come across when they try to measure their success. And this is where we talk about the glue that holds all of everyone’s efforts together. Be it through Social Media Optimization, SEO, PPC, or whatever cockamamie thing someone might be trying this week, the magic that makes this all more valuable than any other form of media is the precision with which we can track this, ie. analytics. And with that I am happy to announce a new blog by a highly skilled individual which aims to keep us all informed… Joe Abraham from AnalyticalNews.org.

In his introduction, Joe says..

I started this blog not only because I am in love with stats, but also to be a stats evangelist. I want to help demystify stats and help people find a good fit…

Best of luck to you Joe. I hope you follow through with your new blog and your mission. Check it.

That’s right loyal readers. Monday is the first in what I hope to be a long string of educational presentations that I am going to participate in. My first scheduled gig is helping to present a 2 hour gig as part of the highly successful eMarketing Technique Series at Cleveland’s Corporate College East. I will be presenting SEO with fellow Cleveland SEO members John Inama from Pilot Fish and Dave Goebel from the Goebel Group.

Here’s a brief intro to the 5 week series..

Learn how to take your business to the next level by leveraging all the
internet has to offer. eMarketing Techniques can be utilized to substantially
grow your business in a cost-effective and time-efficient manner. Work with
area experts in a hands-on and practical series, as we explore the power of
eMarketing Techniques.

Download the PDF or visit KeyEntrepeneurs.org for more information. Hope to see you there!

Anyways, this time around AdWeek goes balls to the wall and uses social media to help it along as it’s decided to invade Second Life with their own island where you can go at any time to relive the weeks festivities and watch their presentations. Their site doesn’t scream that they’ve actually embraced the fine art of social media optimization but meh.At least we know it’s a crock and they were kind enough to create their own Rikers-esque island you have to go out of your way to get to instead of invading a virtual Manhattan. We all know that Ad Week is just another way for the actual city to make a few bucks with an ego-boosting handjob. No harm in that, I guess. While you’re celebrating, get out a fresh tissue and check out a site that really understands your needs… Adsturbation.

First off you need to determine your level of expertise. From what I had gathered this ranged from people who ran their own successful web marketing firms who “barely passed” to people who had handled a handful of Adwords accounts that “studied like it was an actual exam” and didn’t seem to think it was that big of a deal at all.

Translation: Not fucking helpful.
My Thoughts: Putting in days worth of studying for the unknown doesn’t sound like fun and though I’ve run my fair share of accounts I most certainly don’t run my own marketing firm.
Where That Leaves Me: Headed up the river with a boat and no paddle.

This leaves me with no other choice but to start studying. I decide, on the fact that I hate failing more than I hate studying that it would be in my best interest to study and study hard. In the end it can only do me good right? What’s going to happen… I’m going to come away with too much knowledge? So after several failed attempts to be able to alot my time in such a fashion to allow me to study at work or afterwards I find that I have no other option than to lock myself in my room for a day and hit the books, so to speak. And by hitting the books, I mean going through every piece of training in the Google AdWords Learning Center, taking notes and building myself a cheat sheet to die for..

Saturday comes and that’s exactly what I do. By 8am, fresh coffee in hand, I start my routine. By 10:30 or 11, I’m tired. Having figured I’d just run the whole gamut and then take the quizzes followed by the exam, I decide to scroll down through the list ’cause surely I’m almost done. As it turns out, I’ve completed 9 whole lessons… out of 110!

Say what?!! 110 of these things? 3 hours complete and I’m only 9 lessons in? Officer Barbrady, I call shenanigans!

Translation: Bullshit.
My Thoughts: At this rate I will never finish the lessons, much less the quizzes, nor the test in one day. Complete Bullshit.
Where That Leaves Me: Running around the house cursing everything that could possibly be cursed in the name of Google and trying to figure out an alternative to this regiment from hell.

Plan B
OK. Before I begin Plan B, let me just say that the learning center at AdWords is very very good. They cover just about everything you would need to get a PHD in being a PPC whore. However, the day I need to know the standard EU VAT tax for countries billing in Ireland that don’t report their tax rates and infact reside in a different country, in order to pass an exam, is the day that Google can lick my ass and I’m $50 richer by default. Now where was I? Oh yes…

Plan B
This consisted of my strategy by which I decided that in lieu of studying all 110 sections, I would just take the quizzes at the end of each section. Then, if I tank a section or think that I just don’t know enough to pass a test on it, I can go and study that section.

As it turns out.. taking 110 quizzes takes a decent amount of time. Maybe 3 hours or more? Ugh. Google should pay me to take this damn thing. Anyways at the end of quiz number 95 or so.. it’s getting late. And late being like 8 hours later. Having taken a variety of short breaks to go to the store and run errands and cook dinner and keep my sanity in place, this was getting ridiculous. Google, don’t you know I have a life to live? Quiz #96 gets rung in with a shot of Jameson and a toast to my girl.

Suffice to say that by Quiz #110, regardless of my lackluster performance in a variety of billing and European tax questions, I was in no mood or shape to start studying. After all, I didn’t even know if I could take this exam under my own name or if I was going to have to use the login the last guy from my company used and give him credit, where it was so obviously due to me.

Translation: Maybe I shoulda thought of a Plan C.

Tune in later this week for Plan C and beyond….

then it all started to go wrong. i got this odd feeling that you
wanted to take over my computer. and then every other computer. just
to find out everything you could about us all so you’ll know what AD
to serve up to us when we turned on a TV, flipped through a magazine
or drove past a billboard in 5 years when you take over the world. and
who knows what other evil “minority report” type schemes you have
going at the googleplex. and don’t even get me started on how you take
advantage of the people who give you money… don’t you have ALL the
smarties working for you? can’t one of them find a better way?

but now, this is the final straw. now you have my love chained to a
desk on a saturday to take a test that should consist of one simple
question: 1) you or your company send buttloads of money google’s way?
yeah? cool… you’re in. but no, nothing can be simple at google and
it sounds to me like this process is just another thing you’ve
concocted for the sole purpose of fucking with web marketing freaks. well, my
man is not one of those, he just happens to find
himself in this position.. but that is a story for another
letter. so why don’t you knock say, about 108 steps off of this
madness so he could be done with it. and so he could see me so
that i can kiss him and hug him and show him the tree where i use to
collect buckeyes when i was a wee little girl.

and then maybe i will think about installing google desktop 8.0 so
that you can spy on me & serve up a Ginger Chai scented
bodywash ad when i log in to my gworld account.

sincerely,
anonymous

[smomashup note] This letter was given to me as I locked myself in my room for four zillion hours to study and complete the google adwords qualified individual exam. It has been edited slightly to protect both the guilty and the innocent. [/end note]