Philip John

  • Algo chasing and SEOs generalisation

    One of the biggest things that annoys me about SEOs is how so many of them make generalisations. For example, a recent poll conducted by Search Roundtable asked SEOs and webmasters, “do you like blog links?” The poll was sparked off by suggestions by some SEOs that Google had started to de-value links from blogs.…

  • Ethics and Corporation Tax

    One thing that really bugs me is tax avoidance. I used to think it was a great idea until one day, whilst having an inner groan at the constant lack of cash in public services I realised that avoiding tax is, in fact, incredibly unethical and irresponsible. Taxes, whether you like them or not, are…

  • Yahoo is encouraging unethical practices in web development

    A big part of my ethical web philosophy is that site owners should build their sites with the visitors best interests at the forefront. For years it has been shown that surfers use the address bar to get their bearings and so clean, simple URLs are a must. Search engines have always had difficulty with…

  • Common Sense Policing

    Yesterday I sent off my application to be a Special Constable for Staffordshire Police. I’m really excited about it but have been worried about how much pressure there is with all the paperwork that’s required so I was pleased to hear about this pilot scheme that is under way in four forces, including Staffordshire. It…

  • Faceparty Activates Self Destruct

    Social networks are attractive in business because, like TV, they have a captive audience. A captive audience about who a lot is known. Age, gender, location, hobbies, interests, sexual preference, musical preference, favourite TV shows, films, books; you name it. So what do Faceparty do when faced with a bit of legislation? They cull hundreds…

  • Are All PR Professionals Scared of the Web?

    For some reason I’m doing a good job of finding opinion pieces preaching to businesses about why they shouldn’t do SEO, PPC, social networking, blogging and so on. Obviously, being an internet consultant that could be bad for business but it’s getting my back up because I can see a common theme running through a…

  • Yahoo Takes on Google Analytics

    Just over a month ago I received an e-mail from IndexTools to let me know, as a customer, that the company was to be acquired by Yahoo. I’ve been a consistent user of IndexTools for a good few years now, having discovered the tool whilst evaluating analytics vendors for my previous company, so it was exciting news to…

  • Yahoo Sucker Punches Microsoft

    I had to laugh when I read the news on the BBC site this morning that Yahoo and Google have teamed up in an advertising trial. For two weeks, Google will serve 3% of Yahoo’s ads. The article doesn’t mention which ads – I’m presuming pay-per-click ads on search results. The move is clearly intended to fend…

  • I’m giving up on StumbleUpon

    I wanted to do something very simple today. I wanted to look at the StumbleUpon profile of a guy I know who’s blog I was reading. He’d linked to it, so I clicked on it. And there began my frustration. I have a general dislike of any web site/application/social network/whatever that asks you to login…