Patricio Robles

Is nofollow dying?

In a recent post, I discussed the use of the nofollow attribute as an SEO best practice.

In a guest post on SEOmoz, Distilled.co.uk's Will Critchlow suggests the opposite: nofollow is dying.

by Patricio Robles 24 February 2009 09:00am 4 comments

Yahoo set to announce major organizational changes?

2008 was the year Yahoo probably wishes it could forget.

From the company's disastrous handling of Microsoft's acquisition bid to its failed search advertising deal with Google to continued marginalization of its search business, 2008 showed one of the internet's biggest brands to be a company in disarray.

by Patricio Robles 23 February 2009 09:14am 0 comments

Don't be the client from hell

While many, if not most, of the readers of this blog are providing services to others, even service providers tend to find themselves in the client role on occasion.

I recently provided some tips for avoiding deadbeat clients and I thought it would be appropriate to look at another problem: the client from hell. And how not to become one.

by Patricio Robles 23 February 2009 09:40am 2 comments

Yahoo looks to differentiate with rich media in search ads

Is it differentiation or desperation? That's for you to decide but Yahoo definitely thinks the former when it comes to its introduction of rich media to search ads.

With its new Rich Ads in Search program, Yahoo is allowing advertisers to include images, video and even site search forms with their search ads.

by Patricio Robles 20 February 2009 16:05pm 1 comment

Serious security vulnerability hits Adobe Acrobat Reader 9 and earlier

Adobe Acrobat Reader is as close to ubiquitous as it comes. Most new Windows-based computers come with installed and many websites offer up documents in PDF format.

That makes Acrobat Reader a juicy target for hackers and a critical vulnerability has been discovered in Acrobat Reader versions 9 and earlier that could expose users to serious risk.

by Patricio Robles 20 February 2009 16:15pm 3 comments

Memo to TechCrunch: make love not war, because negativity sucks

TechCrunch is one of the blogs that I check on a daily basis. If there's a blog that falls under the category of 'must-read', TechCrunch is it.

TechCrunch made a name for itself by covering new internet startups in Silicon Valley and has a reputation of breaking important technology news.

by Patricio Robles 19 February 2009 10:11am 2 comments

US Census Bureau: ecommerce slumped in Q4 2008

We all know the 4th quarter was a tough one for retailers. Despite the holidays, the global economic crisis had consumers pinching pennies and retailers were forced to discount heavily in an effort to entice them to spend.

Some online retailers such as Amazon.com reported 'record' holidays but many weren't quick to quantify what those 'records' meant to the bottom line and according to new numbers, Q4 2008 online sales in the United States were disappointing.

by Patricio Robles 19 February 2009 08:33am 0 comments

Friends don't let friends autotweet

The more I use Twitter, the more I've noticed an annoying phenomenon: the autotweet.

What are 'autotweets'? They're tweets sent in an automated fashion, usually through websites connected to Twitter via the Twitter API. The purpose of autotweets: to alert followers to new content posted on the Twitter user's website.

by Patricio Robles 20 February 2009 09:01am 0 comments

Facebook makes a huge privacy flub - again

Facebook is on top of the world. Its continued growth is nothing short of amazing and it now has over 175m members worldwide. It's adding 600,000 each day.

Of course, Facebook has yet to turn its popularity into the type of revenue it needs to thrive long-term but if there's one thing that could bring Facebook down, it's not revenue. It's privacy.

by Patricio Robles 18 February 2009 11:12am 2 comments

Fail: Mahalo black hat SEO

Jason Calacanis may be one of the most recognizable internet entrepreneurs in the United States but that doesn't mean that is current startup, Mahalo, is above using questionable SEO tactics to boost its SERPs.

Mahalo is a human-edited web directory that some have criticized in the past as being nothing more than a link farm designed to take advantage of search engines. Which is ironic, given that Calacanis has in the past been critical of SEO.

by Patricio Robles 18 February 2009 09:02am 10 comments