Understanding Google Places & Local Search – Developing Knowledge about Local Search

December 19, 2007

Now taking nominations: The 2007 Top 10 List of the Bizarre, Funny and/or otherwise Irrelevant blog entries in the Search World

Category: Rubber Chicken Award – Mike Blumenthal – 11:34 am

rubber_nominee.gifWe are now accepting nominations for:The 2007 Top 10 List of the Bizarre, Funny and/or otherwise Irrelevant (or Irreverent) blog entries in the Search World.To add a sense of gravitas to this exercise I have invited Bill Slawski and Greg Sterling to act as judges. To honor the SEM world’s grace while shamelessly promoting the industry and others in the industry, I have asked Rand Fishkin and Danny Sullivan to also act in the capacity as judges. And for balance and impartiality I have asked Matt Cutts (answer pending) to be the final arbiter in case of ties or other disputes (Mapsguide Jen has been disqualified as some of the nominated articles may be about her. She has acted in the capacity of comic foil for the whole year so why stop now?).We are now taking nominations. Oh and the rules.There are no rules as to whom or what you can nominate to be on this list with two exceptions:1)In the vein of shameless self promotion I am allowed to nominate my own stories/entries and2) You may also suggest your own categories and entries for those categories ( a hint…great category with but a single entry could be a winner and achieve world wide distribution…well ok I only have 380 regular readers but I am working on that).3)Judges, employees and their families may participateWhat do the winners get? Besides glory and 15 seconds (its a fast paced industry) of fame, you ask? Glad you asked: The Rubber Chicken Award of Literary Excellence to hang on your wall ..er I mean blog (I am way too cheap to actually pay for a wall plaque).Copyright Notice: This blog entry may be copied in whole or in part AS LONG as there is a link back to my site or not. Some restrictions may apply** The link should preferably be from a page with a PR of 4 or higher, it should ideally be in page or category that retains high page rank AFTER it has dropped off the front page. Nofollows are prohibited except where required by (Google’s) law. Sphinning is allowed but preferred if done by groups of 20 or more. Due to server limitations (and fear of controversy) Digging is prohibited BUT stumblupon is encouraged. However if you are inclined to Digg refer to the first rule above.

Please consider leaving a comment as your input will help me (& everyone else) better understand and learn about local.

34 Comments »

  1. [...] Funny and Bizarre Blog Posts Wanted Mike Blumenthal, whom one might call — 1970s reference coming — the Columbo of local search, is soliciting nominations for  the “Top 10 List of the Bizarre, Funny and/or otherwise Irrelevant (or Irreverent) blog entries in the Search World” on his Understanding Google Maps & Yahoo! Local blog. [...]

    Pingback by Funny and Bizarre Blog Posts Wanted « Screenwerk — December 20, 2007 @ 4:35 pm

  2. Funny and Irrelevant and shameless self promotion you say? hmm… well, these are rather all three…
    http://wingnutseo.com/?p=72 – Shana Albert brings me traffic
    http://wingnutseo.com/?p=54 – Tim Nash is hilarious.

    Comment by Wingnut (1 comments) — December 20, 2007 @ 4:40 pm

  3. You want irrelevant, I,ll give you irrelevant:

    Google Spam Team Do Lunch…

    Comment by Paul (9 comments) — December 20, 2007 @ 4:55 pm

  4. Two of my favorites (but I’m biased):

    10 of the Worst Names Ever

    The whole Lessons on Blogging (from popular TV shows) Series at BloggingExperimant.com

    Comment by Pops (1 comments) — December 20, 2007 @ 4:57 pm

  5. Two entries from me: http://www.sitepronews.com/archives/2007/dec/10.html and http://www.ask-kalena.com/rants/dumbass-of-the-week/

    Comment by Kalena Jordan (1 comments) — December 20, 2007 @ 7:12 pm

  6. Oops, with Matt in the jury I can’t submit dull and serious SEO research like
    Google’s 5 sure-fire steps to safer indexing or
    Why eBay and Wikipedia rule Google’s SERPs, but
    SEOs home alone – Google’s nightmare or
    Please don’t run your counter on my servers might suffice.

    Comment by Sebastian (23 comments) — December 20, 2007 @ 7:33 pm

  7. In the spirit of full disclouse Matt is not on the team yet. His closely guarded secrecy has yet to be breached. I have sent missives via my emmisaries but have yet to hear back as to whether he will participate.

    If he does participate, it will be as arbiter as opposed to judge. That is for 2 reasons…1)He is obviously very busy and as arbiter he would just have to make a decision in case of a tie in which case he could just throw a dart and 2)As an arbiter he will not be privy to the secret ranking algo that we are in the process of developing to rank these articles. We felt it only fair that he attempt reverse engineering OUR masterpiece of ranking for a change.

    Comment by Mike Blumenthal (1079 comments) — December 20, 2007 @ 10:21 pm

  8. Pops- Bias is good…we are making no guarantees of fairness here…

    Just a reminder that you will get bonus points for the category that you create to ‘hold” you submission.

    For example in the category:The incredible nexus of technology and new age religion I am nominating my own interview with Mapsguide Jen called
    Google offers new solution for Mapspam removal: Goodoo

    Thanks for the submissions and keep them coming.

    Mike

    Comment by Mike Blumenthal (1079 comments) — December 20, 2007 @ 10:30 pm

  9. Vote Now For 2007′s Funniest Search Blog Posts

    I’m now taking nominations for the 2007 top 10 list of the funny/irreverent blog entries in search. Why? The search industry is important. I mean, what industry (besides the sex industry) can single handedly cause Google to change its vaunted PageRank…

    Trackback by Search Engine Land: News About Search Engines & Search Marketing — December 21, 2007 @ 8:45 am

  10. I’d like to add this to the mix:
    SEO High School Confidential – http://www.searchmarketinggurus.com/search_marketing_gurus/2007/10/seo-soap-opera-.html

    Thanks! :)

    Comment by Li Evans (1 comments) — December 21, 2007 @ 8:56 am

  11. These are all funny in a different sort of way:

    http://www.scoreboard-media.com/5-ways-jason-calacanis-will-revolutionize-2008/
    http://www.johnon.com/453/google-knol.html
    http://brontemedia.com/2007/06/12/technical-challenges-at-google/

    Comment by Richard Ball (1 comments) — December 21, 2007 @ 10:20 am

  12. I have to go with;

    the Sphinn Awards – Part I and Part II.

    Oh… and Matt Cutts Releases Link Spam Software

    Man…. half of what I do is tongue in cheek… lol

    Dave

    Comment by theGypsy (3 comments) — December 21, 2007 @ 10:33 am

  13. Matt McGee’s “Top 21 Signs You Need a Break From SEO (2007 version)” – http://www.smallbusinesssem.com/top-21-signs-you-need-a-break-from-seo-2007-version/529/

    SearchRank Blog “10 Signs That You May Be a Blog Addict” – http://www.searchrank.com/blog/2007/04/10-signs-of-a-blog-addict.html

    Comment by David Wallace (2 comments) — December 21, 2007 @ 12:28 pm

  14. Great idea for a list! I have to submit this one which really caught me by surprise the other day…a true “cat post.” http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/015750.html

    Comment by chris boggs (1 comments) — December 21, 2007 @ 12:54 pm

  15. This blog is not very PC but it is definitely the funniest seo blog that I have ever read. It’s not just one post that’s funny it’s all of them.

    For the category of Worst SEO Blog

    I nominate SEOHack for the following…

    Comment by JDog (2 comments) — December 21, 2007 @ 1:07 pm

  16. Sorry here are the links for SEOHack

    http://worstseoblogever.wordpress.com/2007/11/15/msn-you-piss-me-off/

    http://worstseoblogever.wordpress.com/2007/09/27/jill-whalen-vs-seo-hack/

    Comment by JDog (2 comments) — December 21, 2007 @ 1:10 pm

  17. i might as well whore myself out some more. seeing as i sphinn my own stories.

    http://www.streko.com/2007/12/19/the-search-engine-marketer-and-the-andria-gale/

    http://www.streko.com/2007/12/18/knol-squidoo-the-truth-from-the-google-blog/

    http://www.streko.com/2007/12/17/the-original-blogger-doogie-howser/

    Comment by streko (1 comments) — December 21, 2007 @ 7:08 pm

  18. That’s the spirit streko!

    Mike

    Comment by Mike Blumenthal (1079 comments) — December 21, 2007 @ 7:14 pm

  19. Heck I might as well be a shameless self promoter too…

    How To Get On Google Front Page – Guaranteed

    The Great Google Bitch Slap

    Introducing The Google Condom

    Comment by Mike (2484 comments) — December 21, 2007 @ 8:23 pm

  20. How about Larry and Sergey as the Ghoulgle?

    http://www.getelastic.com/google-guys-halloween-costume/

    Comment by Jenna Packer (1 comments) — December 21, 2007 @ 8:27 pm

  21. I can no longer resist the temptation to expose myself… Publicly! Overt your eyes if you are offended by shameless self-exposure. :-D

    http://jmorris.name/advertising/expose-yourself-publicly/
    http://jmorris.name/social-networking/laughable-linguistic-linking-social-media-edition/
    http://jmorris.name/marketing/the-internet-marketers-nightmare/

    Great contest! I’m looking forward to seeing how this turns out.

    Comment by JMorris (4 comments) — December 22, 2007 @ 11:43 am

  22. Hi Jim

    We’re all adults here…more or less … we are looking forward to your exposure :) .

    Mike

    Comment by Mike Blumenthal (1079 comments) — December 22, 2007 @ 11:56 am

  23. In the vein of self promotion, I nominate two posts:

    http://www.alchemistmedia.com/blog/mission-accomplished-top-ranking-in-google is a spoof on George Bush’s Mission Accomplished speech.

    http://www.alchemistmedia.com/blog/microsoft-buys-digg was our April Fools contribution, which we attempted to stay as close as possible to the language one would expect to find in a press release while lacing it with Irony. Pay attention to the name’s of the people quoted.

    Comment by Jonah Stein (1 comments) — December 22, 2007 @ 12:55 pm

  24. Excellent idea!

    I humbly submit my colleague Sandra Niehaus’ post about Google Interiors:

    http://www.closed-loop-marketing.com/blog/2007/06/02/google-interiors-the-day-my-house-became-searchable/

    Enjoy…

    Comment by Lance Loveday (1 comments) — December 22, 2007 @ 8:49 pm

  25. Oh, we love shameless self-promotion! Matt C liked this one:

    http://www.pandia.com/sew/567-black-hat.html

    The Dark Side of SEO (Search marketing ads we would like to see)

    Comment by Per Koch (1 comments) — December 23, 2007 @ 1:21 pm

  26. From Rand on vaca in California….so I am posting on his behalf:

    Aww, shucks. I was hoping someone would nominate one of Geraldine’s posts -
    http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-not-to-write-adwords,
    http://www.seomoz.org/blog/13-things-to-do-when-your-loved-one-is-away-at-conferences,
    http://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-seos-guide-to-beginners or Rebecca’s most
    recent dive into rare search terms -
    http://www.seomoz.org/blog/seomozs-unusual-searchterms-from-the-month-of-november

    I’m in San Diego on vacation, but should be able to get to these sometime
    this week.

    Best,
    –
    Rand Fishkin
    CEO, SEOmoz

    Comment by Mike Blumenthal (1079 comments) — December 23, 2007 @ 8:34 pm

  27. [...] is reader of the month!  Well, that doesn’t mean a whole helluva’ lot, but the guy did nominate the Worst SEO Blog Ever for something.  And hell, it oughtta’ matter for something.  So he gets a crappy link from this crappy [...]

    Pingback by 7 Things I Learned On the Interweb This Week « The Worst SEO Blog Ever! — December 27, 2007 @ 7:22 pm

  28. [...] Mike Blumenthal announced opening of nominations for The 2007 Top 10 List of the Bizarre, Funny and/or otherwise Irrelevant blog entries in the Search Wo…. In true attention whore fashion, I exposed myself… publicly and somehow managed to get on [...]

    Pingback by I’m Not a Nobody, I’m a Weiner! | JMorris Online — December 27, 2007 @ 8:28 pm

  29. [...] of my pamphlets made it in The Rubber Chicken Award’s Top 10! That’s 50% success (2/4 nominated pamphlets), so please help me to make that 100%: vote for #3 and [...]

    Pingback by Vote Now: Rubber Chicken Award 2007 for the dullest and most tedious search blog post — December 28, 2007 @ 12:02 pm

  30. Definitely SEOHack’s Worst SEO Blog Ever

    http://worstseoblogever.wordpress.com/2007/11/07/top-10-reasons-i-cant-party-like-an-seo-rock-star/

    i hope i got the math equation captcha right

    Comment by Syzlak (2 comments) — December 28, 2007 @ 1:27 pm

  31. Well, our theme is irreverent and possibly worth a rubber chicken! Here goes:

    Comment by John (45 comments) — December 28, 2007 @ 5:33 pm

  32. Darn trigger finger… here’s the link:

    http://www.ppchero.com/2007/10/19/in-google-adwords-bidding-wars-are-a-thing-of-the-past-beat-your-competition-with-these-4-tactics/

    Comment by John (45 comments) — December 28, 2007 @ 5:34 pm

  33. [...] So I take a little time off and while gone, JDog nominates yours truly for an award.  A prestigious award!  Humbled (well, as humble as someone as awesome as me can be), I hope for the recognition I so [...]

    Pingback by It Ain’t Easy Being Awesome « The Worst SEO Blog Ever! — January 3, 2008 @ 6:07 pm

  34. [...] Now taking nominations: The 2007 Top 10 List of the Bizarre, Funny … [...]

    Pingback by Google Maps, Buscador de Numeros Celulares — March 21, 2009 @ 6:31 pm

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