Is Squidoo becoming a massive, dirty SEO back alley?

Like many folks I had a hard time trying to figure Squidoo out ever since Seth was running around with mockups of it at Web 2.0 two (three?) years ago. It’s a decent concept: anyone can create a “lens” of their favorite topic. So, if you love bulldogs you can create pages about bulldog that are somewhere between a blog and a wiki page.

However, the SEO slimebuckets (not the whitehats–take it easy 10%ers got their dirty little hands into the system and now the whole place is filled with spam/SEO sites. So many that folks are marketing Squidoo as a way to make quick money.

I first found out about this use when one of the SEO slimebuckets tried to take over my SeRP and made fake Squidoo and MySpace pages (very smart–but lame).

Do a couple of searches on Squidoo and you’ll see what I’m talking about:
http://www.squidoo.com/search/results/porn
http://www.squidoo.com/search/results/mortgage

Also, the top 100 lenses seem to be lenses that have the #1-5 result on Google. Squidoo has the #1 result for laptop bags now: http://www.google.com/search?q=laptop+bag

Now, none of this is Squidoo’s fault… it’s just what happens when you run a platform company. Frankly, digg and Netscape have to deal with these sames issues. I told the Netscape folks to kill any story from the system after 30 days if it had less than X number of votes. This would take out the SEO incentive of posting and keep the system clean. Of course, you lose some pages and page views… so, that’s the balance I guess: keeping your system clean vs. having it packed with bad information that brings you traffic.

Squidoo is dancing very close to being viewed as an SEO trap I fear. If I was Seth I’d put the brakes on these people because they are tarnishing the name.

Also, if Google thinks the system is an SEO play they will ding Squidoo’s page rank/value, and that would be a real shame. It really sucks that these SEO, MLM, and PayPerPost maniacs keep pissing in the well. The Internet is such a great place and you have all these evil people trying to frack it up… it really pisses me off.

End rant.

MORE: Seems like folks are adding Squidoo links to their fake blogs, with fake tags, to complete the circle from blog to Technorati to Squidoo. Great.

Example: http://dailyfreebiesforum.com/blog/free-squidoo/258

Ruby Tuesday: how do you live with yourselves?!?!?!

Was just reading Slashfood and they had a story about Ruby Tuesday’s “Fresh Chicken & Broccoli Pasta” dish which has over 2,000 calories and 128 grams of fat.

Hello!?!!?!? Fresh Chicken & Broccoli Pasta says 800 to 1,000 calories to me–max.

Sandy Beall how do you sleep at night?! *

[ * Note: I now people are responsible for their own health, but putting out dishes with health names that are your entire days caloric input seems just--well--evil to me. ]

Google Traffic Maps…

Very nice… now I can see exactly how horrible the traffic at the 405 and 10 in Google Map Goodness.

I haven’t had a commute for over 10 years and I will never–ever–never commute anywhere in my life. [ Note: commute = > 15 minutes on a daily basis ]. I can’t understand how folks do it, and why companies make them do it. If I was running a company with over 1,000 employees in Los Angeles I would create three or four offices and have folks show up to remote offices in the Valley, West Side, East Side, and South side and call it a day.

Someone should make the Starbucks of office space where folks can come and get a cube every day for like $50 a day–and companies could buy 10,000 cube days a year. It’s just such a waste of time for folks to spend two or three hours in their cars a day.

192.6 – good month

Well, it’s the end of the month and I didn’t want to workout today but I did a 30 minute walk just to cap off the month.

Looks like I walked 47 miles this month. That’s a lot I guess, but I used to do that in a week as a marathon runner so I’m not shocked. I mean, in the weeks before the marathon I used to do like two or three 10-15mile runs a week. Gosh those days seem so long ago!

I’ve gotten some feedback that I shouldn’t do these HIIT training until I’m in better shape… I probably should take that advice.

Next month I want to try to walk/run six days a week…. so, maybe a goal of 24 or 25 workouts in 31 days. We’ll see how I do. I’m also going to visit a trainer in LA I think… suggestions in the comments welcome.

Bury Brigade tracker?

Following up on yesterday (or was it the day before?) when we discussed the bury feature on digg not having ownership (i.e. a name attached to the negative vote) we have Muhammad Saleem tracking the digg spy. Very interesting findings… turns out folks with personal vendettas vote things down as spam–shocking!

Someone should create a 3rd party tracker and put this information out for the long term and see if they can find some trends.

CalacanisCast beta 12

In this action packed auditory adventure, Jason reflects on some of his favorite clips from recent podcasts around the blogosphere.

Dave Winer – Public Media conference
TWIT - Jimmy Wales and Wikipedia
VentureCast – on multiple round funding
Martin Scorsese – Oscar acceptance clip

download: audio
subscribe: iTunes | audio
transcripts
contact: cast [at] calacanis.com

Enjoy,
Tyler Crowley

… will the Web 2.0 bubble pop because of a global recession?

… discuss in the comments please.

HIIT training…

Just getting on the treadmill changes everything…. today I thought I would just do a 20 minute walk an call it a day

Well, I got to 25 minutes and I felt great and figured I’d try a couple of HIIT sprints. I did 40 second sprints and 1:20 recovery time with the sprints at 7.5/8MPH. I did eight sprints at the end of the workout and I’m feeling really high right now. Burned 350+ cals too.

19 treadmill workouts in 27 days… should hit 20 out of 28 days. and over 7,000 cals–that’s two pounds… which is about what I lost this month (I think I lost like three/four pounds). At this rate I’ll be at 185 in three months. So, June 1st I should be about 60% of Daniel Craig.

191.6… gotta… get…. on…. treadmill….

I’m still beatup from the HIIT workout Sunday. In fact, I’m hurting more today than I did yesterday…. so, I’ll just warn everyone once more to be careful with this high-intensity stuff. I think you need about 30-40 walks/runs under your belt if you’re gonna do this kind of thing. Of course, you could also do it a little less intense I guess. Either way you should probably talk to a trainer/doctor about your workouts if you don’t want to hurt yourself–not me. I just a dude talking about what I’m doing. This blog isn’t a health plan that you should follow… this is one dude talking about his life. Be smart about your health and your body.

OK, enough disclaimers…. I’m 191.6 today and the month is coming to a close. I didn’t make it under 190, but I look a lot different in the mirror. I’m fairly certain that the 18 workouts I’ve done this month have built some muscle, burned some fat, and changed my body. It’s also helped my mind. When I was 207 I would hurt for days after even a simple treadmill workout. If I get on the treadmill today it will be eight days in a row–and three of those days were hardcore workouts.

Working out in the AM is a my big secret at this point. If you get it overwith in the AM you’ve got a much be chance of actually working out. As the day goes on you get busy, you get tired, and you say “screw it, I’ll workout tomorrow.” If you start your day with a workout you’re gonna burn more calories all day (right?), feel more energy, and sleep better at night.

Here is how you do it:

a) Layout your workout clothes by your bed when you get up.
b) When you get up just put them on–don’t even debate if you’re gonna work out.
c) Buy a bunch of workout clothes so you are never faced with the “I’ve got nothing to wear” argument
d) If you’re really not motivated set yourself up with some ubersimple goal. Like tell yourself that you’re going to do at least 50 or 100 calories/10 minutes on the treadmill. When you hit that goal chances are you’ll do more.
e) Set up small goals of consecutive days for yourself. For example,I did a bunch of 2 or 3 days in a row segments this month and I finally turned a corner last week and now I’m on day eight–in a row! If you get two days in a row try for three. After that why note five? If you don’t do it no problem, now you’ve got another chance to get it done.
f) Go Starbucks Style: If you really can’t get up for your work out walk to Starbucks–or two starbucjs away from your place if you’re in a city (that’s about 8 blocks –and walk back. At least you’ll get a mile under your belt.

So…. if you’re reading this and it’s 9am on the west coast and you haven’t worked out let’s get to work people!

KFC Rats… greatest… .video… ever…

I miss NYC