The Lost Coder

Before I burn this to the ground, I want to say this first. I have been involved in search engine optimization for a little over 7 years, I’ve been a part of helping small businesses launch a dream as well as helping fortune 500 companies keep a dream alive. I have personally chosen not to help large companies and corporations because frankly, they’re not really there to serve the publics best interest. The money that can be made isn’t worth my conscience kicking me for years to come.

First off, I’ve personally struggled with my ethics versus what I do for a living almost everyday. I am pro-small business, anti-establishment by nature. I understand full and well that the people that work for the corporate meat grinders are just trying to support themselves and their families, and that the world can’t function on small business transactions alone. I understand that business is like the chain of evolution where the fittest survive and the rest will be eaten or fade away into obscurity.

Mass Mind Control

My problem, specifically with online marketing, is that it is unchecked when it comes to transparency to truth and honesty in advertising. It’s beginning to follow the same formula as TV does; we will tell you what you want, we will tell you what is hip, we will tell you how to get it, we will form your opinion for you. Social media platforms opened up to the ability for consumer reviews, but of course that leaves it open to the shills to pollute consumer opinion on the same sites. Then there’s the fucking morons on the net who have no business sharing their opinion in the first place because they can’t seem to think past the herd mentaility or whatever the TV tells them is cool. All you need is a checkbook, a pulse and an internet connection to become an authority on something.

I’m guilty of abiding the enemy. I have helped people and companies that take part in business practices and product offerings that I would much rather take a fat steaming shit all over than help them market. I have helped people who have found ways to cash in on the fear and paranoia of the Bush administrations propaganda, the tragedy of 9-11, and even the Iraq war. I have enabled the opportunists, because I have a family to support. But then something funny happened…

I stopped. I looked. I realized. I got angry. Not the felonious kind of angry where I’d burn down city hall, but the kind of angry that births resolve and decision. I see what the search engines do to business owners by dangling the golden carrot on a string in front of them, then I see what internet marketers are resulting to to keep businesses happy while chasing the golden carrot, and finally what consumers are doing to avoid the tactics and how the search engines keep profiting in the end regardless. The search engines are polluting the internet for profit and ruining the last frontier we have for honest and real communication.

They Compete For You

Google, Yahoo, Microsoft all share something in common. They want money. They don’t care how the businesses pay for it, just fucking pay for it or else you can’t succeed on their medium. This is where Pay-Per-Click comes into play. To back this up, have a look at how Google has their 2 biggest competitors doing everything except for calling in witch doctors and making voodoo dolls to catch up to them. It’s all about the money. It has NOTHING to do with presenting a new way for the public to get relevance and honesty versus paid placement and intentional dishonesty through gobs of cash.

Deep down inside, I hate marketing in itself. The purist in me believes that if something is truly good enough, it will market itself. Of course considering the sheer volume of internet users, one could say that it’s statistically impossible for a product or service to carry it’s own weight to the point it marketed itself globally. Even though that’s exactly what Google did. But it’s better to disregard that example because it makes too much sense.

This Isn’t About Blame, Just Accountability

Our compliance for accepting bogus advertising and forced product placement started with the radio because we could tune it out. Then came television.. fucking up the program right off the bat. It has been the one invention (outside of money, glorification of sex and drugs) that will keep the masses stupid and ready to make decisions for the wrong reasons. Marketing, or rather, concerted lying, enables these companies to have a mass audience and is just as insidious as actually buying into the bullshit.

To me, the internet represented a last frontier for honesty in marketing.. kinda like one last chance for people to say whether or not something is total bullshit and not worth buying or if it’s something they feel confident in having in their homes. The power of word of mouth still goes a distance in consumer confidence, and so does the social portals allowing people to vent and smell out the shills (i.e. craigslist), but the wolves will always beset these protected doors with tried and true tactics to keep the masses under the spell.

A Scary Trend

Here’s a thought; have you noticed that since 2001, there has been an explosion of people doing online shopping versus actually going in person to a store? Let’s really call this what it is; since 9-11, people have been feeling more inclined to avoid public contact because of the following things;

• fear of the people outside their homes
• listening to pundits and supposed authoritative types echoing fear laced propaganda
• companies looking to counteract this trend by focusing on how to cash in on the surge of internet users afraid to go outside

Seriously, how many holiday gifts have you bought that came from an ecommerce portal in the last 4 or 5 years?  Do the math here… companies are relying on our dependency for the internet as a solution.. a place to go when we don’t want to go out.. when we can’t think of a good reason to go out.  Search engines deliver us there, but the online marketing delivered the companies to that position.  And anyone can get on the front page of the search engines if they can afford it.  Whether they deserve it or not.

That’s the nature of business right?  Beat your competitor to the gate or lose that sale.  The playing field that the internet was available to prescribe to any and all businesses was one of limitless equality for market share.  But be it in human nature, many found out how easy (and profitable short term) it is to lie on a web page, and even easier for a web designer to provide a medium, a web designer to establish an appealing facade, and some marketing people to broadcast this bullshit because a paycheck is riding on it.

Conclusion

SEO in itself is not a bad thing.  It is a service made up of grossly underpaid and overworked professionals who are tasked with publicizing a product or service and then managing the traffic flow from that effort.  Everyone involved in this industry has a point where they can’t work with some company in good conscience and choose to walk away.  I’ve done it and I have never, NEVER, regretted it once.  Hell I’ve missed out on some seriously good money because of it.. but ya know what?  Fuck ‘em… I’m the one who I have to really answer up to with the choices I make.

Everyday I’m watching the internet become a beacon of polluted consumerism.. a capitalist wet dream full of greed and scams.  Social portals start pure and become victim to cronyism to those with the most pull and money for swaying public perception.  There is a limit for all of us when it comes to being shovel fed bullshit, but when will it be met and where will the internet be at that point?

I’m writing this post specifically for all the people on StumbleUpon who instantly flag anything and everything Linux related. This is just for you, because I can tell you’re feeling left out of the crowd whenever others give a thumbs up or a positive comment about Linux. It’s okay.. we all still love you regardless of your grumpy disposition.

Why People Use Linux

I know it’s easier to find fault in something before you even try it. I also know that it’s all too easy to just follow the herd and proliferate an established stereotype for the people that do something that you don’t understand.

Let’s get some basic facts established:

1. Linux is free.
2. People like free.
3. People like using their computers.

From this basic cluster of common sense facts, we come to the first point; there are people out there in this big crazy world who like using a free operating system on their computer. Ok, that’s a no-brainer. Let’s move on and have a look at the types of people that use computers and look for any glaring differences:

1. Cool people and total geeks use Windows.
2. Cool people and total geeks use Mac.
3. Cool people and total geeks use Linux.

Ok so from these points I bring up the next conclusion; no one is better than another just because of their choice in operating system. That point is important, so please remember it for later. There might be a test.

Each Has Their Role

Macs get commonly associated with multimedia production ranging from graphic design, music composition to full blown 3D animation, but is recently coming into their own in terms of gaming or office use. Windows gets associated with being the only real gaming choice, and is also capable of multimedia production and is defacto in offices for daily tasks. Linux is most commonly noted for being the best choice for programming and/or web site hosting, however, has been in the role of high end multimedia production, can communicate around the office just fine and has a gaming crowd as well.

From that paragraph it sounds like each operating system is technically capable of doing what the others are doing, but some have strengths over others. Would you use a Ferrari to tow a yacht to the pier? How about a dump truck to race F1 Formula cars? It all depends on what the user needs their computer to do. And the “free” part of this is always appealing to a large number of people.

The Mind Of A Linux User

To understand the appeal and growing numbers of Windows/Mac converts coming over to Linux to either have a taste of completely settle in, you have to understand some caveats to a Linux users perception of life and computing:

• The prior operating system they used might have limited their professional life in some way.
• The field of work they want to go into requires Linux knowledge and use.
• They feel shafted by Microsoft and their business model.
• They feel like they are being herded around by Mac’s less than open architecture.
• The idea of being a part of a community forming an operating system or computing environment catered to the average person is very appealing.
• It’s fucking free. You don’t have to steal it via torrent, burn it from a friend, “borrow” a copy from work, etc etc.

The User Experience

Each operating system has eye candy. Each has their own way of presenting files. Each has the ability to modded to whatever you like. Ultimately, it’s up to you what you want. The things that matter most at the end of the day are usually:

• Time it took to boot up the system
• Time and system resources it takes to open programs without the system coming to a crawl
• How well it interacts with the internet in terms of protection, speed and reliability
• If you had to pay money or resort to stealing software to get what you want
• All the software and hardware play nice and don’t lock up your system to the point of no return
• Time it takes to shut off the system and not have to wait to make sure it actually shuts down

Those are pretty much the core things I can think of off the top of my head that will make or break a user experience on any computer, regardless of operating system or system specs. Windows Vista modestly suggested everyone in the whole god damned world should upgrade their systems to enjoy their new offering. Nevermind that people are paying them for something, and they should be more accommodating to the ones dumping out money to keep them in business.

Mac users are usually pretty content with the hardware they’re supplied with, and can upgrade.. but only to a certain extent due to their lack of drivers. I personally have respect for this model because it does ensure more reliability for their users. But it does seem kind of inflexible…

Linux works great on older systems, commonly bringing old computers out of retirement, while providing a fast operating system that looks nice and flows smoothly. Newer computers benefit the most, but it’s not a necessity to get the most out of the system. Oh and then there’s the issue of eye candy. For example, like this system. To make it fair though, here’s Windows Vista vs. a Linux desktop with Compiz running. The song in this video is lame, sorry.

StumbleUpon Users - The Conclusion

Get my point here? When you guys show up on StumbleUpon saying that only crusty freaky ass geeks use Linux, you’re dead wrong on that one. Besides, do you want everyone doing the same exact thing and not thinking outside of the box? What would that do to the creative process to invent new technology? What about the right of choice?

Just in case you find yourself with a few extra minutes to waste, here’s a few things you can waste those minutes on;

• Try to become part of history when Firefox 3 gets released
• Download a 297mb LiveCD of PCLinuxOS 2007 called Mini-Me.  Burn it to a cd, boot up with it, and play around.  When you’re done, just reboot without the cd and back to your regular desktop you go.
• Get a good laugh from the “Best Of Rants & Raves” section from Craigslist
• Go to Costco or some buy-in-bulk kind of place and get some of those Energy Saver light bulbs.
• Find a local charity and donate a little.
• If you have a car, do yourself a favor and get an oil change, new air filter, get your tires inflated properly and change out your spark plugs.  Those 4 things right there alone will improve your gas mileage and reduce your environmental impact.
• Sell your TV.  Your brain and waistline will probably thank you for years to come.
• Turn off your computer for a day, go outside.
• Count how many sit-ups you can do in under 3 minutes.
• Start a blog about whatever the hell you want to start one about.
• If you have one, go POST ON IT NOW.

If you’re like me and have kids, then well yea.. you don’t really have any free time unless you get up before everyone or stay up late.  I got up this morning at 5 AM, so I’m following my own advice and posting on the blog after I donated to The March of Dimes.  All of this took me no more than 20 minutes to do.  What can you do in 20 minutes that will make your day better?

Harsh statement, I know. But I got some proof for this one. First of all, let’s have a good look at the google home page, and if it validates.

Survey SAYS: NEGATIVE! Oh and the search page fails CSS validation as well. But it does pass a basic pass on Cynthiasays for Section 508, but fails WAI. Man, what’s going on with such a simple page?

Now you may think big deal that it doesn’t, but think about it for a second. This is the place where everyone starts with Google. The infamous search page. To me personally, I would like to think that this is a bit of a crappy message to give to people using tools on their system to check out the ever so popular Google.

But what about the other search engines, shouldn’t they be held accountable to this as well?  Well duh, of course they should.  And for me personally, yes, I do hold them to the same standard.  But Google even more so because they are in a position where they can set an example, and frankly.. they have the market share so why screw that up?

I didn’t even bother to go into their other apps and services.. I’m gonna safely assume that there’s issues in there too.  And thats what I’m getting at;  if these Google functions are meant for all public use, then what about this sector of the public that you’ve forgotten about?

Welcome to my new blog, glad you could make it! Most of you are probably coming over from my old blog (SEO Honolulu), or perhaps you somehow found your way over through who knows where. Either way, glad to see you.

Unlike my old home on the web, this new blog is here to serve as a place for me to ramble about more than just web development and internet marketing. Not that there’s anything wrong with those topics, but there is so much more that I want to discuss with readers. The most notable difference between these 2 blogs is that this blog is here for expansion into all things tech and geek, with no real dedicated focus on certain categories.

So if you will pardon the dust around here, I have some finishing up to do as far as layout and function for my new home. You’re welcome to drop by anytime and say hello. Oh.. and it’s always BYOB

-Matt Webb