Patricio Robles

#IranElection and #CNNFail: lacking #context

Twitter's utility as a means to share breaking news is not new. Its track record includes the bombings in Mubai and the landing of US Airways Flight 1549 in the Hudson River.

Over the weekend, Twitter became a hotbed for reporting and discussion of the contentious presidential election in Iran.

by Patricio Robles 15 June 2009 10:07am 9 comments

Microsoft exec: no growth in online ad spend until 2012

The general consensus seems to be that the Great Recession will end sooner than later and, even if we've got some permanent scars, most of us in Internet Land will get back to business as usual.

But what if that's not the case? What if online publishers should be preparing for a protracted period of little to no growth in online ad spend?

by Patricio Robles 15 June 2009 09:33am 0 comments

The new economics of entrepreneurship? Nah

Is a recession a good time to be an entrepreneur? Has it changed the economics of starting a business?

Silicon Valley veteran Guy Kawasaki believes the answer to both is "yes".

by Patricio Robles 18 June 2009 10:54am 8 comments

A/B split and multivariate testing: don't forget your most important page

I'm a huge fan of A/B split and multivariate testing. It simply works. And that means more money at the end of the day.

But because this can be a complicated undertaking depending on the scope of your testing strategy, there are often pages that get left behind.

by Patricio Robles 12 June 2009 08:57am 5 comments

Lightning strikes Amazon's EC2

Cloud computing is growing in popularity and many businesses, both large and small, are turning to the cloud to host critical applications.

Amazon's EC2 is one of the most popular offerings but all it took was a single lightening strike to take part of the EC2 cloud down last night.

by Patricio Robles 11 June 2009 18:24pm 5 comments

Don't get pulled over by the Google Patrol

It's late at night and you're driving along the highway in your brand new Rolls Royce Phantom that sports the license plate 'BEST SEO'. All of a sudden you see the flashing lights behind you. You were driving the limit. You know you were obeying the rules of the road. What gives?

You've just been pulled over by the Google Patrol and it's pretty obvious that you aren't guilty of anything other than being a high-profile SEO.

by Patricio Robles 11 June 2009 10:17am 4 comments

US to poker services: we weren't bluffing

Online gambling is a hot-button topic in the United States. When it comes to poker, which many argue is a game of skill, the US government considers the game to be illegal.

The US government has been successful in pushing some of the online poker services out of the American market. For instance, it drove out PartyGaming and Playtech, both of which are publicly-traded in the UK, and collected a hefty fine from PartyGaming.

by Patricio Robles 11 June 2009 09:19am 1 comment

Sponsorship fail: Sprint delivers the bad news on MSNBC.com

Sponsorships can be extremely effective for brands. But selecting and executing them properly isn't easy.

Sometimes brands sponsor things that are truly baffling. Such is the case with Sprint's sponsorship of MSNBC.com's breaking news.

by Patricio Robles 10 June 2009 12:23pm 2 comments

Facebook vanity URLs coming this weekend

Cancel your weekend plans. At 12:01 am EDT on Saturday, June 13, Facebook will open the floodgates on a long-awaited landrush.

At that time, all Facebook users will be able to select a vanity URL (eg. www.facebook.com/username/).

by Patricio Robles 10 June 2009 09:10am 3 comments

Bing is off to a good start: comScore

In the first week following the launch of its new 'decision engine', Bing, Microsoft's search property saw its average daily penetration amongst searchers grow by 1.7% and its share of search results pages grow by 2%.