Peanuts to Profits With Thor Schrock
Peanuts to Profits With Thor Schrock

Microsoft is advancing a whole new search interface with the release of their sexy Ms. Dewey system, featuring B-rate film actress, Janina Gavankar.

This new search concept is an interactive approach to search. When you type in a search query the search results are preempted with a bit of interactive video where Ms. Dewey comments on the merit of your search.

While the interactive component (which could use some work on its transitions) is interesting, the search results (pulled from Microsoft’s Live Search engine) that are displayed are so far off the relevancy wagon that they are pretty much useless.

For example, if you do a search for the term rap in Ms. Dewey, there is a 1 in 3 chance that she will unleash a *beep* filled tirade that is somewhat comical, but if you were really there to see the search results, you would be disappointed with what Live Search found after the fun is over.

This is another component in the growing trend to sex-up search engines and online advertising. Even Google, who avoids anything pornographic in their AdSense and AdWords programs like the plague, is now accepting and displaying more “revealing” advertisements than ever before.

I don’t really see this search model going anywhere in its current form. But with some additional work on the interactivity, better search results, and a more user-friendly search interface, it could have possibilities down the line.

If you are talented with HTML and CSS, you could have a position with Nebraska’s top voted independent computer repair company, Schrock Innovations. If you do not live in Nebraska, you could become a contractor for Schrock and help us handle our work overflow in peak demand times like NOW!

We have an immediate opening for a HTML/CSS developer to work with our talented development team. Knowledge of PHP and MySQL is helpful, but not required. We would prefer an individual who can physically work in our Omaha, NE Service Center, however our immediate need to hire has opened this position up to applicants willing to telecommute, and at times commute, as well.

Unlike other Internet development companies, work is never in short supply at Schrock Innovations. We always have a steady stream of paying customers for our development services from across the United States.

In addition, you would have the opportunity to work on cutting edge “home run” projects. We are currently developing an RSS Feed ranking system that could do a better job of ranking blogs than Technorati as well as an open and accountable traffic monitoring system that could replace Alexa as a standard for collecting accurate website traffic statistics on participating websites.

Other internal projects include desktop alert software, the Maintenance Checkup Home Edition, and a cutting-edge lesson development tool for a non-profit educational organization.

Some examples of our most recent HTML work include the John Spatz for Lincoln City Council website and the Lincoln Independent Business Association website.

You can apply for this position on the Schrock Innovations Employment Page.

This is a 13-post series of all of the ‘Get a Mac’ commercials that have been released by Apple. Two new commercials will be posted each day at 12 noon.

Viruses

In this commercial, PC catches the latest virus and eventually crashes as Mac looks on and tends after his sick friend.

Trust Mac

In this commercial, PC wears a disguise to protect himself from spyware and viruses. Ever so generous, PC offers his backup disguise to Mac, who refuses it because he doesn’t need it.

Be sure to come back tomorrow to see the commercials ‘Touche’ and ‘Self Pity’.

This month marks the one year anniversary of the launch of the Thor Schrock Technology Blog. In the past 12 months we have progressed from a few page views each day to more than 1000 unique daily readers (now if I could just get them all to install the Alexa Toolbar).

I work hard to bring a wide variety of content to my readers every day. This takes a lot of effort, but is totally worth it when my readers comment on the posts that I write.

To thank all of you for a great year of growth I have decided to loosen the reigns a bit by installing the dofollow and top commentators plugins. This means that when you comment on an item and include a URL with your name, that URL will now be counted by Google as a backlink.

In addition, I am including a SITE WIDE top commentators box in my sidebar that will reward my site’s top 10 commentators by giving them a free backlink as well.

Obviously, this can be an invitation for spammers, so I have also installed some counter measures to prevent the most egregious spammers. If I think you are comment stuffing, I will pull your comments, so please respect the opportunity and play by the rules.

I appreciate all of your comments (yes, even you ‘Listener’) and I am looking forward to another year of great progress to come.

I am not exactly certain why, but this year-old spyware infection seems to be resurfacing lately. More than 10,000 unique visitors have hit our remove BraveSentry tutorial on the Schrock website this month alone.

This infection is a member of the SmitFraud family. There are a number of other infections bearing wonderful names like SpySheriff, SpyTrooper, AlfaCleaner, SpyFalcon, TrustCleaner, SpyHeal, VirusBurst, SpywareQuake, SpywareStrike, and countless other variants.

If you get a message on your PC from software that you did not install telling you that you need to pay money to remove an infection from your computer, you are probably infected with one of the SmitFraud variants.

Whatever you do, do not pay them any money. Instead use the free removal tutorials listed above, or seek the assistance of a Computer Repair Center.

Last week a commentator asked if I could post all of the “Get a Mac” ads on my blog at one time. After looking into it, I found that Apple has released 26 of these commercials. I was also surprised to find that I had not seen some of them on any of my local television of cable channels. While it could have been a coincidence, it is also possible that certain commercials only rand in particular markets.

Posting all 26 videos at once would make for one massive post, so instead I will be posting them two at a time every day at 12:00 for 13 days. This way you can watch them over your lunch hour at work and not get into any trouble at my expense

Without further ado, here are the first two commercials in no particular order.

Wall Street Journal

In this commercial, PC takes Mac’s Wall Street Journal and reads a glowing independent review of mac by a technology expert. Embarrassed, PC makes up a fake review and says that makes them even.

Work

In this commercial, Mac tells PC that he is better at fun things than PC is. PC disagrees and attepts to explain the family vacation using a pie chart.

Be sure to come back tomorrow to see the commercials ‘Viruses’ and ‘Trust Mac’.

Garry Conn reported on his blog this morning that domain cybersquatters are reserving the names of the people killed in the Virginia Tech shooting incident, as well as the names of their family members. The squatters then plaster ads all over the pages and offer to sell them back to the family members at exhorbanent prices.

According to Conn, Joseph Parker of Christiansburg, Virginia reserved the name of the Virginia Tech gunman, Cho Seung-Hui. Upon further investigation it appears that the domain names of many of the victims have also been reserved. The owner(s) of those pages are attempting to make money with advertisements on the sites. In addition they are attempting to sell some of the sites to anyone who is interested.

This is a developing story, so check back to Conn’s website for breaking news on it. He is currently assembling a list of the victims names who have had their online identities stolen. It is sick and disgusting that someone would do this after a tragedy of this magnitude, and anyone who is caught doing it should be flamed all over the web for doing so.

I frequently get requests from bloggers to be added to my blog roll in the sidebar of this blog. Most are just out to benefit from my high (relatively) Technorati rating, while others are genuinely worthy of a link because of the awesome content and information they generate.

You might have noticed that I have added a new member to my blog roll, Garry Conn. Garry’s blog is a treasure trove of information for anyone who wants to find new and unique ways to promote their blog online, find new readers, and eventually make some money in the process.

One of the things I like most about Garry is that many of his posts show how everyday people can take everyday things and combine them together to form unique and interesting ideas. When it comes to making money online, so many people get caught up in reinventing the wheel that they lose sight of their readers – the real bread and butter of any blog.

In fact, you never know what you are going to find when you read his blog. He recently made a BOLD decision to replace the standard blog post interface with a tag cloud. For a blog with as much readership as his has, this is a huge risk. But Gary is known to shake things up from time to time.

For example, the header of his blog is an eclectic mix of Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 components that would make anyone who is firmly rooted in either world shudder. But the mix suits Garry’s readers, and that is what matters to him. People can easily find content-rich information that suits their needs and answers questions that are simply not answered elsewhere.

Recently Garry tackled the many questions surrounding Alexa and how they rank web site traffic. He explained the Alexa system and pointed out the highlights (and lowlights) of what has become almost a standard way of ranking blogs on the Internet. He sure moved me to install the Alexa toolbar!

I find myself reading his blog daily because his mind works a lot like mine does. He is a creative marketer – which is the best kind in my opinion. Rather than looking at the tried and true established methods of promotion, Garry adds his own special twist to get even more bang for his online buck.

Perhaps best of all, is that Garry shares the wealth. He offers link exchanges, Technorati favorites exchanges, and reciprocal Alexa website reviews to anyone who is interested. For a beginning blogger, it is DEFINITELY in your best interests to look at the free promotion tools that Garry has to offer.

The next time you have a moment; check out Garry Conn’s blog. If you are anything like me, it will rapidly make its way to your morning reading list.

My Google Toolbar has become a much appreciated accessory in my browser window. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I visited the Google website to conduct a search – I just run them through the toolbar.

But both my wife (3.8 GHz XP Home 1 GB RAM) and myself (1.6 GHz Dual Core, Vista Ultimate, 2 GB RAM, 512 ReadyBoost) have been noticing the toolbar has been really slow for the past couple days. We are both using the Internet Explorer version of the toolbar.

When I type a search into the toolbar and press enter, I have to wait up to 15 seconds for the search to execute. Sometimes I have to click 2 or three times on the “go” link to get a results page.

A new version of the toolbar was automatically downloaded to all users a few days ago, and I am suspicious there might be a glitch. Google suggests that the toolbar’s PageRank feature might be the culprit, but I use that feature and do not want to disable it.

If you are having problems with the toolbar let me know so we can narrow the problem and post a response. If your toolbar seems slow too, please post your operating system and browser name (IE, FireFox, etc…)

I received word this afternoon that the location for the April 24th Meetup of the Nebraska People Making Money Online Group has been finalized. The meetup will be held in Omaha this month (Lincoln had it last month) at:

Turnpost Creative Group
17330 Wright Street Suite 200
Omaha, NE 68130

The meetup starts at 6:30, and a nice dinner (Lasagna, cheesebread, salad and brownies) will be served for $10.00. At the time of this post, there are still 10 spots left for people who wish to RSVP. For those who can’t attend for some reason, I am exploring the possibility of taping the presentation and posting it on my blog after the event.

I will be speaking on creating, promoting and monetizing your blog. I will have some fresh research data to present that has not been published elsewhere, as well as some techniques I have perfected that will help you improve your Technorati ranking without getting banned.

If all of that is not enough to get you to RSVP, you should also know that I will be giving a free gift to everyone who attends that exceeds the $10 cost of the dinner. So what do you have to lose? If you are a blogger or a webmaster thinking of launching a blog and you want to learn how to get more readers and make more money, this is the place to be!