the press release is dead

I must admit I've always been a fan of what the folks at Blockshopper.com have been doing with their site:  taking tired old real estate data and turning it into news.

That's right — they turn every real estate listing into a news story, and then provide gobs of data (from political districts to school information to house-by-house property tax data) to create what is not only a hyperlocal news site, but also an SEO machine.

After several years of building this machine (and inking deals with newspapers including the San Francisco Chronicle and St. Louis Post Dispatch), it now appears that Blockshopper might be quietly transforming their online publication into a powerful local business directory.

For example, if you look at http://Chicago.Blockshopper.com/notes, you'll see that local businesses (as well as realtors) can now attach positive customer comments and work case studies to specific addresses.

So, say you're a contractor who's worked on a number of homes in the Lakeview section of Chicago ... you can attach case study notes (which link back to your Web site) to the pages of each of the homes you've worked on.

Kind of like a "virtual yard sign", eh?  And it's a yard sign with some major "Google Juice" as evidenced by a few quick Google searches relevant to some of the businesses advertising on Blockshopper.

Stay tuned for more from this company.  I have a feeling they're just getting warmed up.

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How many times do you hit the send button on an email, only to realize you forgot to attach your file? 

Ever been embarrassed after receiving an email from your client that says, "Forgot to attach" or "Nothing attached"?

Well, as you can see from the graphic above, Gmail has a new tool to save you from your embarrassment.  Apparently, if you have the words "attached files" (or, I assume, something similar) in the body of your email and don't actually attach any files, the above message will appear.

I think it's pretty darn cool.  What do you think?

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I am a big user of Google products.  My business uses Google Apps for email, calendaring and Google Docs.  For this we pay a fee — a relatively small fee...but a fee, nonetheless.

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Earlier tonight, I saw a tweet from @JakeParrillo that referenced a Google Insights result that showed a surge in Google searches for Bill Brady — the upset winner of the Illinois Republican Gubernatorial Primary. Click here to take a look at the chart of that Google Insights report.

But it doesn't end there.

Here is the chart of a Google Insights report on the dead heat matchup between incumbent Gov. Pat Quinn and challenger Dan Hynes.  While Quinn was the eventual winner — only a point separated them, which is basically reflected in that Google Insights report.

And take a look at this ...

In the hard-fought battle for the Democrat U.S. Senate nomination between Alexi Giannoulias and David Hoffman — eventual winner Giannoulias beats out Hoffman on Google search volume, and this Google Insights report reflects the close nature of the race.

And how about the Republican Lt. Governor race?

Upset winner Jason Plummer had a Google surge at the end of the race — forecasting his win last Tuesday.

Could Google Insights be the ultimate election prediction tool (for races in which there is enough search volume to register)? 

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Rick Stratton has a great post up on the Feed.Us blog about how the once-vital homepage of your Web site is "dying."

Rick's point is that Google Search, in addition to the dawn of RSS feeds, has made your internal "article pages" as important (or more so) than your homepage.

Here is a quote from that story:

"Yes, the article page is the new front page," said Nick. "The front page of a website will always be important, especially for your regular readers. But, especially on news style websites, the majority of readers, and the vast majority of new readers, will arrive at an inside page first. They may in fact never see your front page. So your inside pages need to be designed as if they were the first things people see - including any key calls to action." Luke Beatty, founder of AssociatedContent.com, agrees: "homepages are for portals almost exclusively nowadays. The homepage has been made obsolete by the link economy and search."

Rick's post is dead-on.  It also supports the important fact that we try to hammer home with our clients:  successful online campaigns are built on content and engagement, not eyeballs and widgets.

There still are so many Web sites out there who focus solely on their homepage, loading it up with static widgets and budgets that nobody uses, and ignoring the actual internal content that makes a campaign successful.

Then they purchase Google Keyword or Facebook ads and drive people to their static homepage, which is useless.  Why, you ask?  Simple:  these types of ads should drive people to an "internal" page with specific content you want people to view or, more importantly, a page in which you specifically engage your viewers. (For example, drive them to an internal page where you TV ads are posted, or a sign up page to get involved, or a place where they can comment or interact.)

Nice post by Rick.  It's a simple principle — yet one that so many people still ignore.

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