Like many writers and web site developers, I use tools such as Google Trends to focus my vocabulary and article topics in the realm of hot trends and interests. There are numerous reasons for doing this, but the big one of course is money.

I pop in some keywords gleaned from sources like the keyword suggestion tool, and see the relation comparisons. Google Trends doesn't give a numeric value for the amount of searches for these keywords however, it just shows a comparison graph.

To get an idea of global high mark value, I typically will compare sets of words to the term "free sex". Despite how we may feel about this, sex sells, and on the Internet, sex is the high water mark. Just popping in sex however is a misleading value, because sex is all over the place in various meaning, so I use "free sex" or some other, more exacting phrase.

Rarely, if ever, does any phrase come close to the "free sex" mark, but today I'm writing and developing for my Scarn.com website, and found that Anime, and Magic are not only close to the "free sex" water mark, but in some time periods, actually rise above the interest line.

The term Anime Porn, which I first thought would account for the seemingly misleading high mark for Anime, actually registers much lower than the term Anime. You can mess around with the keywords yourself.

Anime Music Videos, Glenn's Desk, Web Content, Where's the Money

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The Seekers

Let's pretend for a moment that there is no place to hide on the Internet. That no matter what you do, or who you are, your tracks always lead right back to you and your various ID's on the network. Whether these ID's are email boxes, IP addresses, street addresses or your company, there is no way for you to hide or alter the records of where you have been, or where this hour's personal interests may have taken you in today's travels.

Feel comfortable? Don't worry about it, most intelligent people would not feel comfortable with this state of affairs.

Having nothing to hide does not equate to casual consent for privacy invasion.

The Hiders

Now let's swing our mythical perspective pendulum to the other extreme of the spectrum. What if the opposite state of affairs existed? No matter what was attempted or how a server connection was configured, there was no way to track you at all? This would include your emails, your web site visits, your searches, your forum posts, even down to how many times you viewed the same web page.

Are you okay with this cyber environment?

Continued Here -> »

Glenn's Desk, Search Engines, Web Content, Where's the Money

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The Golden Compass was originally titled "Northern Lights" but because of the depiction of Lyra Belacqua's alethiometer on the original cover, it was retitled by the publisher "The Golden Compass". By any title this is the first book of the "His Dark Materials" Trilogy.

The mythology created inside the Dark Materials story is original and complex. Several artifacts are created, as well as spirit beings such as dæmons, ghosts, and deaths. Heavy use of Celtic and Norse mythology is used in these areas however, in both mythos and symbolic characteristics. Very little of the Christian mythology is used, if at all. Knowing what we do of the author, it is likely that any definition of the symbols in the book based on Christian mythology should be looked at twice. This does not make it an anti-Christian story, we should remember that atheist does not mean anti-Christian. Atheism is the disbelief in the existence of a deity or deities. It is commonly defined as the positive denial of theism. Philip Pullman, at the very least had a strong idea of spiritually and a spiritual realm, as well as an amazing grasp of mythology itself.

To bring this trilogy into the debate of God and anti-Christian meaning however, is a true shame, though I doubt it could have surfaced as a movie any other way. The work itself is truly a breath of fresh air and Pullman's scope of creation is awe inspiring.

Book Review, Glenn's Desk

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What will really help your web site? What idea, or feature will generate the traffic and sales you are looking for. Multimedia is a very effective tool, used with discretion and purpose. The old law of 'just because we can do a thing, doesn't mean that we should do a thing' holds true in this area.

Working with D-A-L.com, I discovered that creating short flash tutorials for particular subjects, was very effective. These tutorials show the tasks and computer fixes that I describe in the text of the article. They are not a substitute for good, clear writing, but they are definitely an enhancement. On top of this, they generate a better response than articles with out them.

The trick is to know what is helping your goal and what is not. The goal of your web site determines what is there, or at least it should. If your goal is to make money, through page views and ad-clicks, then you will use multi-media much differently than if your goal is for direct retails sales, or real estate sales which again would be a much different use.

Real Estate sales is a perfect example of what I'm trying to get at here. A few years back, around 2000 - 2001, a big idea was to create panoramic views of the rooms in a house that was going on the market. These 360 degree view files were put on web sites as a type of virtual tour. Problem is, they never really enhanced the sales. Buyers didn't want to spend the time on the web site looking at these fish lens views of the room, they wanted to see the house.

Same idea, with hotel rooms however works much better. Virtual tours are a great idea for particular items, and particular uses. Selling a house isn't one of them.

So, before you spend several thousand dollars on a great idea, make sure that it fits your goal, and your web site.

Glenn's Desk, Web Content, Web Design

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The Winter of Frankie Machine will be on shelves September 26th. This novel is the first one since The Power of the Dog made its New York Times Best-seller run. Robert De Niro has already purchased the rights for the film, and the script is currently being created. Not bad for a book that hasn't even come out yet.

Robert De Niro previously said that he would not make another gangster movie, but the part of Frankie Machine was just too good to turn down. Frankie is a retired hit man. He started his career reluctantly, and tried to end it as soon as he could. Happy with his bait shack on the OB Pier, his linen service, and several other small business, retirement is treating him very well. Unfortunately, some people in his past have long memories, and find that Frankie still being alive is not an option for them.

After being setup, by two kids, sixty-two year old Frankie has to find out who is behind the attempt on his life, and how he's going to preserve the life he's been able to create for himself.

The book, like most of Don Winslow's work, is fast moving and fun to read. Other books by Don Winslow which will be coming out on the movie screen in the next few years are The Death and Life of Bobby Z, and Cool Breeze on the Under Ground.

Glenn's Desk

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