We’re all Mozilla Firefox users in the Upstream office. Let’s not get into why.

A month ago Mozilla released the 5th beta of the latest version of Firefox (v3), rumoured to be the last beta before the first RC appears. Having tested it for a couple of weeks now, I have to say, it’s superb. Not only is it a huge upgrade from the latest v2 build, but Mozilla claim to have made over 750 improvements since beta 4, so you can tell they’re working hard on delivering one hell of a browser.

The buzzwords for the v3 beta are the same old ones you’ll hear with every release of pretty much every browser, be it Internet Explorer, FF, Opera, Safari or any other: “more secure” - citing the Site Identification button as its most visually obvious upgrade - “easier to use”, “more personal”, and “improved performance”.

The thing is, for the first time since I had a go on the IE5 beta all those years ago, the upgrades are actually noticeable. Even with all my extensions still installed, Firefox 3 beta 5 flies along at an almost scary rate - it really is noticeably quicker; both in startup and in rendering web pages. The download manager has inline search - something woefully lacking in previous versions (though those who enjoy that kind of thing would probably have grabbed the pretty-much-must-have Download Statusbar extension by now). Smart Bookmarks tracks your most-visited pages and does all the work for you, a functionality only achievable in earlier versions with extensions.

One of the most popular complaints with Firefox is its memory leak issue - but right now, with 20 tabs open and numerous downloads, firefox.exe is using a mere 97,000Kb of RAM. Not bad considering if I load the exact same tabs into my current 2.0.0.14 build, I get RAM usage of over 250Mb.

And what’s more, unlike most other betas I’ve been happy to play around with, Firefox 3 has not crashed on me. In 2 weeks. Not once.

Bravo, Mozilla. Download your copy of the beta right here; but if you’re happy with 2.0.0.14 for your casual browsing and fear the upgrade may disable some of your favourite extensions, probably best to wait for the finished article to be released - according to the Mozilla wiki, we can probably expect a mid-summer release!

The domain name is yours for the meagre price of $5,000,000!

Nice work if you can get it, eh?

Apologies to Alex for breaking the chain of SEO-related posts, but…

As one of these irritating people who constantly claims to ‘love words’ (’words’ said in that horribly reverential way, as if somehow… Welsh), stumbling across this site not only gave me an opportunity to learn a few new ones, but also to help out those who are significantly worse off.

FreeRice.com gives you a word and 4 possible synonyms, and simply asks you to pick the one closest to the meaning. The simple way in which it works means that you will find your vocabulary increasing unconsciously; and what’s more, for every word you get right, they’ll donate 20 grains of rice to the UN World Food Program. New words are constantly being added by ‘a team of professional lexicographers’, which sounds like a wonderful job.

20 grains of rice doesn’t sound that much, but over a few months you can really make a difference. Plus today I learned that a ‘bluestocking’ is another word for a ’scholarly woman’. Incredible.

But then again, I do love words. And we like charities.

So, why not do your bit? Even if it’s just a couple of words a day, you’ll be helping yourself and others, and you don’t even need to get your cheque book out. Win-win!

A large part of any good SEO’s work is keeping up with the latest developments at Google and watching where they are going in the future. All forward thinking SEOs are also working more and more with social media optimisation, as it is becoming known.

In the last couple of weeks, you may have become acquainted with iGoogle, which is the new default start page for your Google browsing experience. The service itself is nothing new, with its (less catchily named) predecessor Google Personalized Homepage having been available since 2005, but the search giant is now really pushing this idea.

Suggested content for your iGoogle is selected according to your browsing habits. This can be hit and miss; for example, if you say that you are interested in sports, Google assumes that this means basketball, baseball and the NFL.

One thing that people of a nerdier disposition (like us) have always enjoyed about iGoogle is that it encourages developers to create applications, rather like Facebook. Very recently, Google has modified the interface to include an “update” sidebar that shows users what their friends are up to. Rather like Facebook.

This second point is important - alongside traditional search, Google is looking more and more at the social aspect of the internet. The marketing implications of this are pretty big. Social newsfeeds like that in Facebook are a fantastic form of viral marketing - seeing that a friend has done something encourages other people to have a go too. This mainly benefits sites that make an effort to include good content that actually adds something to the internet.

Google is stepping into the world of Social Networking again. After the mixed reception to Orkut (which is, oddly, the most popular Social Networking site in Brazil and India), this time they want to do it right… basically, by mixing whats good about Google and Facebook. This is one to watch.

PS. While searching for images to accompany this post, I came across this. Oh dear.

Facebook was the big internet success story of last year. The media, and the British public at large just couldn’t get enough of poking, posting and tagging. In fact, Brits took to the site more enthusiastically than any other nation and still spend a larger percentage of their browsing time on Facebook (and social networking sites) than any other nation.

So we’re hooked.

Recently, some people have been saying that Facebook has peaked and is starting to go the way of myspace (which is decidedly niche nowadays). The truth is far less clear cut. Social networking sites are maintaining incredible growth: 20.8 million Britons (63% of Britons online) visited at least one of the ten most popular social media sites in January 2008, compared to 17.1 million in January 2007 (stats from Neilsen). And while YouTube may now see more monthly UK visits than Facebook, which site do you think has a stronger infrastructure?

Judging by the frequent service outages and glitches that you find on YouTube, it’s hard to imagine that the site was expected to become as popular as it has. Facebook, on the other hand, has always given the impression that it is ready to swallow the world.

The recent addition of pay per click advertising has been subtle enough not to anger users, despite actually being quite intrusive. All of that information you added to your Facebook profile (your favourite films, music, brands & places, not to mention your marital status, sexual orientation, family etc) can now be used to create super-focused marketing. This gives brands the opportunity to zoom in much more closely on their target demographic and stay away from those potentially expensive wasted clicks.

I recently attended a talk give by Blake Chandlee, Commercial Director of Facebook UK, in which he talked about the power of Facebook for marketers. His talk brought up a couple of interesting points. Firstly, brands can communicate directly with people who have mentioned a fondness for that brand in their profile. This is marketing to those with open ears. Secondly, marketing through Facebook is pretty close to viral marketing, because of how newsfeeds work. Basically, interacting with a group/brand shows up in the newsfeeds of your friends, therefore giving them your “vote of confidence”.

This business is all about trust: if people trust a site they are much more likely to make a purchase. If people see your site at the top of SERPs they are much more likely to trust it. If a friend trusts your tastes, they will follow your paths on Facebook. But beware… someone will be watching!

In a policy shift, Google’s UK & Ireland operation has announced that, from May 5th, Adwords users will be allowed to bid on trademarked names. US users have been able to do this for four years.

The move has predictably stirred up a storm of complaints from Media agencies and companies afraid that rivals will be able to hijack years of hard branding work with one deft bid. Many more people are suggesting that this is an example of Google pushing the boundaries of legality to maximise their profits in an area where they already hold a virtual monopoly.

Bidders will not be allowed to incorporate the trademark into the advert itself, but can bid to have their adverts displayed when a searcher enters the trademark as a search term.

Google believes that this action is legal and nobody has yet challenged this assertion. It appears to be another area where the law has not kept up with the phenomenal pace of change that characterises the internet and search engine marketing in particular.

Of course, at Upstream Connections, we believe firmly in the power of natural search results. On average, a front page listing in Google’s natural listings brings three times the traffic of a paid listing. Drop us a line to find out more.

Check out Kinsey’s Myspace:

http://www.myspace.com/kinseysprompage

Thousands of people have been keeping up with young Kinsey over the last couple of weeks through her video blog posts. She’s excited about her prom and blah, blah, blah, but she’s a little concerned about the behaviour of her brother Hank.

What is Hank up to?

Could it be a secret invasion?

Great work by Marvel (or their agency).

April Fools Day is upon us once again…

http://www.google.com.au/intl/en/gday/index.html

“Using a mashup of numerous factors such as recurrence plots, fuzzy measure analysis, online betting odds and the weather forecast from the iGoogle weather gadget, we can create a sophisticated model of what the internet will look like 24 hours from now”

Great stuff.

Hello there, and a happy Monday to everyone.

Upstream Connections is very much a Brighton SEO. Some of our longest-standing clients are based in and around the fine city of Brighton & Hove, with more around the whole of Sussex. In fact, Brighton is home to a bewildering array of internet startups, websites, design companies and marketing companies like ourselves.

The whole new media boom is very good for a city that, despite appearances, is not especially wealthy. Sure, property in and around town sells for a small fortune and you often see Aston Martins and Bentleys rolling along Western Road, but this wealth is generally generated out of town. The internet boom has allowed local companies to compete on a national level. Brighton SEO companies, web designers, programmers, developers and marketers have lower overheads than their equivalents in the Big Smoke and can offer much better value. There are even parts of London that can be reached more quickly from the coast than from the other side of London.

Brighton’s Search Engine Optimisation community growing by the day. Alongside the longest established Brighton SEOs, companies like ourselves are growing at a rate. We are very proud to be attracting major clients like the Carphone Warehouse, who would traditionally have gone with more a more famous name. That our relationship will shortly be going into its third year should speak volumes about our work.

On another note…
Keep your eyes peeled in tomorrow’s Argus for another “The Bottom Line” column. This week I have written about handling negative blog or forum posts - an issue that is becoming increasingly relevant as Google has recently started launching forum and blog posts to the top of SERPs in record time. What should you do if you find yourself victim of a bad post? Picking up a copy of tomorrow’s Argus would be a good start.