Archive for the ‘meta’ tag
Meta, The World’s First Entry-Level AR Glasses, Hires The Father Of Wearable Computing As Chief Scientist
The Meta 1 is a pair of augmented reality goggles that performs some very unique and useful tricks. While they are still in beta stage, the glasses are coupled with a Kinect-like camera to sense objects in real space and allow users to interact with virtual worlds with the swipe of their hand.
The company founder, Meron Gribetz, says that the company is on track to create a mass produced solution shortly, but until then they have brought on Steve Mann, a real cyborg and wearable computing researcher, to act as a chief scientist. You’ll recall that Mann was assaulted in a Parisian McDonald’s for wearing a Google-Glass-like headset.
“We brought Mann on board because of his expertise in two key areas: miniaturization and mediated reality. Mann has been developing a Google Glass-like device for years but recognized now was not the right time for something of that scale, because of the limitations of such a device. Rather than a phone accessory, Mann is keen to work with us to develop a fully fledged new interface for computers,” said Gribetz.
“His scientific leadership in mediated reality will be a huge advantage for us when delivering an immersive augmented experience. Occlusion (hiding or modifying real world objects) is a key part of full augmented reality and Mann’s experience in mediated reality will allow us to bring the best solution to market in this area.”
Gribetz is a Y Combinator alum and the project, which is still on Kickstarter, is nearly funded with 26 days to go. Users can receive a Dev Kit for $550. Epson will help build Meta’s next-generation VR glasses which will look considerably less DIY than the beta developer version.
“The entrance into consumer wearables needs to be a high powered immersive device capable of fully replacing the computer and more. Heads up notification systems have their use cases, but they won’t be game changers. Mann’s commitment to a fully wearable future is why he chose to join us,” said Gribetz. Considering Mann has been wearing his computing power for most of this decade, it seems like a good fit.
"But first I’ll try to make you feel really badly"
Here’s one strategy for handling returns from unhappy customers:
Let them know you don’t accept returns. Explain that it must be a user error. Explain that the customer must have lacked care or intelligence or ethics. Explain that you’re willing to accept a return, but just this one time. And finally, explain that you’re now going to put the person on a list, and you’ll never sell to him ever again.
Do all this in one continuous statement, without pausing for a response.
This has happened to me more than once.
What puzzles me is this: if you’re going to give the customer a refund, why not make them delighted by the process? Why not create an aura of goodwill? At the very least, both of you will have a better day. Even better, perhaps one day someone will mention your company to this former customer–I wonder what he’ll say?
One tip: if you say your meta-goal out loud (or jot it down) before you start an interaction, you’re more likely to consistently create the outcome you seek, not the one you hyperventilate yourself into.
URL Naming Best Practices
The URL of a webpage is an important factor as far as search engine optimization is concerned. Right after the title tags and meta description, a meaningful URL is considered a strong signal towards the “intent” of a page because, apart from Anchor text, a URL is the only parameter that can be used to [...]
Back to Basics: SEO Essentials for International Marketing [INFOGRAPHIC]
As inbound marketers, we all know the importance of search engine optimization — particularly how critical inbound links are to getting our websites to appear in the SERPs. But if you’re serving an international audience, have you considered whether you’re catering your SEO efforts to, well, an international audience?
While this may not be applicable to everyone, if you’re an international marketer targeting your country, a U.S. marketer with customers in multiple countries, or see international expansion in your company’s future, the information on how to optimize your website is critical, yet often scattered and hard to find.
Scattered and hard to find, no longer! The infographic below explains the six essential search engine optimization tips for international marketing in a succinct visual form that you can bookmark and browse through at your leisure — or, if you’re in the mood to read, we’ve expanded the explanations below the infographic for a little more in-depth information on international SEO.
For more information about international SEO, download 50 SEO & Website Tips for the International Marketer.
1) Signal the appropriate language to search engines with meta tags.
Meta tags allow your website to converse with search engines. It’s like flirting with Google to try and get a solid spot in their heart (or in this case, the SERPs). If you’re marketing to an international audience, you need to ensure search engines know what country you’re from — or at least what language you’re speaking in! By telling the search engine your language is English, French, German, etc., you’re increasing the likelihood that your website will appear in the SERPs when someone searches in that same language.
The standard meta tag recognized by search engines is <META name=”Language” Content=”EN-GB”>
All you need to change is the “content” portion. In this case, EN-GB stands for English-Great Britain. For a full-list of common language meta-tags, check out our free guide.
2) Be aware of (and use) spelling variations.
Even if you’re targeting a language that’s used in multiple areas around the world, that doesn’t mean that each country uses the same spelling rules you do. For example, American English and British English may be the same “language,” but there are multiple variations between the two such as color vs. colour, or optimization vs. optimisation. Such differences will be critical when it comes to ranking for particular keywords in search.
3) Cater domain extensions to the country you’re targeting.
If you have the resources to build sites at each target country’s domain extension (.co.uk, .ie, .fr, etc.) you should do so. As we all know, search engines pull results based on your location. When you search for “Dunkin’ Donuts,” your search will return links to locations near you. With that in mind, you want search engines in your target countries to pull up your website for searchers in that country. Having the proper domain extension allows search engines like Google or Bing to know that your site is the answer to the search inquiry. If you’re worried about duplicate content by hosting multiple sites, you can always set up domains that redirect to your main website.
4) Make sure the date is formatted according to each country’s standards.
When someone is looking for a particular update or story, they may specify their search to a particular date. Realize that every country formats the date in different ways, and by having your dates optimized for the country being targeted, you’re more likely to reach them.
5) Use a local address.
As an extension of the previous two tips, you want to ensure search engines recognize who you are targeting by connecting them to that location. If you have an office or mailing address in the target country, include it in your website’s contact information.
6) Increase inbound links from target countries.
If your target country is England, for example, you’ll want to increase inbound links from England-based sites. We know inbound links are crucial for good SEO, but they are even more crucial for international search engine optimization. These area-specific inbound links can help create authority for your website as the destination for answers to the searches people in those areas are conducting.
Do you have any additional tips for marketers targeting international locations? Share your advice in the comments!
Look under Your Blog’s Hood Every 5,000 Miles
Leaving your blog on autopilot is a little like driving around in a truck with its engine smoking: you’re sure to miss warning signs that something is wrong. That’s why regular blog checkups are so important: once you see what’s broken, you’re on your way to clicking on all cylinders!
10 Key Areas to Examine in Routine Blog Check-Ups
Load Times: If it takes your blog more than 10 seconds to load, you’re going to lose visitors. Slow pages lower search rankings, decrease traffic and harm conversions.
How to Fix: To make your blog load faster, get rid of unnecessary plugins, optimize images, remove pop-ups and cache your webpages.
Broken Links: Nothing frustrates Web visitors faster than clicking a link and finding it doesn’t go where it should, whether that means an error message or simply the wrong site. Use an online link checker to spot these broken blog links.
How to Fix: Once you’ve spotted your broken links, edit them to point where they should or remove them from your site completely.
About Page: Your About page is one of the most important parts of your blog. In order to be effective, this page must be updated to reflect your company’s changes.
How to Fix: Read through your About page thoroughly to make sure it’s correct and up-to-date, and change anything that’s no longer appropriate.
Copyright Info: Many blogs post copyright info but never update it, leaving it out of date.
How to Fix: Update your copyright info to reflect the current year!
Meta Data: Visitors don’t see meta data, but it’s very important. Search engines use meta data to interpret page content. When you change page topics over time, the meta data also needs to change. If a certain blog page used to be about playground materials but has since changed to construction safety equipment, for example, you also must change the keywords from swing sets to safety hand gloves.
How to Fix: Locate outdated meta data, and revise it so that each page’s meta data title, description and keywords match the content appropriately.
Website Email Addresses: Over time, it’s easy to accrue email addresses associated with your domain. The problem is that Web visitors may try to contact your company through one of the expired email addresses, and you’ll never know.
How to Fix: Test all the email addresses associated with your domain by sending test emails. If any bounces back, delete those addresses and remove their mention on your blog.
Autoresponders: Autoresponders can be a handy tool for email responses, but sometimes they contain expired or outdated info. When a Web user gets an outdated response from your blog, the only thing it shows is that you’re not paying attention.
How to Fix: Double-check that your autoresponders are current and accurate so that they can help and not harm your brand.
Different Browsers: The exact same webpage on truck tracking equipmentcan appear one way in Safari and another in Firefox: one with neat formatting and a white truck, and another with overlapping content and a missing image. If you only ever view your blog in one browser, you may never see problems affecting other users.
How to Fix: Take the time to check out your blog in different browsers and locate issues—then reformat and edit your HTML to create the same appearance in every display.
Mobile Version: Now that more and more Web users are relying on mobile devices to keep track of emails, social networks and blogging, you’ve got to have a mobile-friendly site.
How to Fix: Test your site on an iPhone or tablet and see how it looks. Is it compatible? If not, make the changes necessary to make it functional.
RSS Feed: A broken RSS feed is no small matter—whether caused by hacking or special characters in links, it means no new subscribers and no way of publishing content to those who are already tuned in.
How to Fix: If your feed is broken, you can repair or recreate it yourself, install a feed-fixing plugin or, in some cases, locate the character causing the problem and correct it.
About the author: Shanna Mallon is a writer for Straight North, a Chicago Web design agency specializing in SEO, Web development and other online marketing services.
Look under Your Blog’s Hood Every 5,000 Miles is a post from: We Blog Better. © 2011. Share it freely, but please link back to this source.
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Meta Widget Turns Nearly Any Web Page Into a Widget on Android [Video]
Android: Widgets are awesome, but if you’re keeping your eye on a service or web site that doesn’t have a widget in the Play Store, you can make your own with Meta Widget. More »
Keyword Research: What You Need to Know
Keyword research is considered as one of the building blocks of search engine optimization, but it is also the least talked about. Although it’s no longer used in Meta tags, it is still applicable when boosting website traffic. Without the right keywords, your SEO efforts will lose track and your content won’t be able to [...]
Welkom in de meta-maatschappij!
Google gaat seo-trefwoorden minder waarde toedichten. Eindelijk, en meteen een sign of the times, want de google-gps leidt je steeds vaker om de tuin. Zoetjesaan verwordt internet, met dank aan o.a. social media, van een ontsluitende informatieverzameling tot een verstopte vergaarbak van verdoken reclame en hoogst individuele meningen die verrassend collectief blijken. Zo soms heb ik de indruk dat maar 10% van de online @liassen broninformatie (nieuwe en betrouwbare inhoud) produceert, terwijl de andere 90% recycleert en becommentarieert. Alsof we in een meta-maatschappij leven. Lees meer
How to Survive, Live and Prosper in the Flow Society?
So, I have tried to outline some strands of conversations to try to understand “The Flow Society”. I hope by now you have gotten my main point. 
I don’t understand it!
I do not have a “coherent theory” firmly rooted in any kind of “sociological meta-theory”, and transformed into a new one. I only believe one thing – this is a process of re-discovery, together, a co-discovery, and finding, just maybe some co-re-discoveries 
. Core Discoveries!
SMX Live: Schema.org, Rel=Author & Meta Tagging Best Practices
Below is live coverage of the Schema.org, Rel=Author & Meta Tagging Best Practices panel from the SMX West conference. This coverage is provided by Barry Schwartz of RustyBrick & Keri Morgret of Strike Models…