Pattern is a fast, robust, general-purpose Python library for web mining

Pattern is a fast, robust, general-purpose Python library for web mining, text analysis and (upcoming in 1.1) graph visualization.

Extensive documentation can be found here:
http://www.clips.ua.ac.be/pages/pattern

http://www.clips.ua.ac.be/news/version-10-of-the-pattern-web-mining-module

A Recent Google-Slap (Overstock.com)

Recent News (SEO)

Google Inc. is penalizing  Overstock.com Inc. in its search results after the retailer ran afoul of Google policies that prohibit companies from artificially boosting their ranking in the Internet giant's search engine.
Overstock's pages had recently ranked near the top of results for dozens of common searches, including "vacuum cleaners" and "laptop computers." But links to Overstock on Tuesday dropped to the fifth or sixth pages of Google results for many of those categories, greatly reducing the chances that a user would click on its links.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704520504576162753779521700.html?mod=WSJ_hp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsFifth

Google Social Search, a Recommendation Engine

Google Social Search is not a new feature, but it wasn't that important until now. Google used to display at the bottom of the search results page a few links to pages created or recommended by your friends and social connections. The feature automatically obtained data from Google Reader, Google Buzz, Gmail Contacts, Twitter and other sites linked from your Google profile.

Google's blog announced that Social Search will be used to enhance Google results and will become a ranking signal. Social Search borrowed Hotpot's interface that annotates results with messages like "Dan rated this place 5 stars", so you can see why a page ranks so high.


http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2011/02/google-social-search-recommendation.html

Digging Deeper into Facebook Pages: 11 Things You Need to Know.

(Updated for clarity:  This post is an excerpt and link to another blog...)

Now that I’ve had a few days to play around with the changes Facebook has
made in its Business Page product, and also to process those changes, I thought
I would share a few things that you should consider as you move forward. Overall
I like the changes, and I think you will too. But just remember: this is
Facebook. They aren’t done yet. More changes are on the way.

This is a rather long post, but here’s what you need to know. In some cases,
I’ll explain ways to use the new features, along with ways you should avoid
abusing them:

1) Check your business category – When you click on the
“Edit Page” button you’ll have access to a number of new behind the scenes
features. Now, for the first time since you created your page, you have the
chance to make sure you have categorized your business properly under “Basic
Information”. Facebook has added quite a few new categories and subcategories.
Having worked with a lot of clients I know that sometimes the old categories
didn’t quite fit a lot of businesses, or the person who created the page
mis-categorized the business.  And once you set it up, you weren’t able to
change it.


Read more: Digging
Deeper into Facebook Pages: 11 Things You Need to Know http://inklingmedia.net/2011/02/14/digging-deeper-into-facebook-pages-11-things-you-need-to-know/#ixzz1DyhaigcI

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ATTENTIONOMICS: CAPTIVATING ATTENTION IN THE AGE OF CONTENT DECAY

The essence of this deck is that attention is linked with economic value creation. However, with infinite content options (space) yet finite attention (time) and personalized social algorithms curating it all for us, it's going to be increasingly challenging to stand out.

Let's  consider Twitter, for example. They are seeing a staggering 110 million tweets per day. And the volume is growing. But therein lies the challenge. Each tweet decays almost as soon as it is released. Some 92% of all retweets (and 97% of replies) are within the first 60 minutes according to Sysomos.

The situation in some ways is worse on Facebook where a highly personalized algorithm called EdgeRank curates our feed based on personal affinities, content formats and timeliness. There's not just one Facebook but 500M Facebooks. And, according to Vitrue, the majority of us participate at top and bottom of the hour. This means that anything you post to your Facebook page needs to create a social surge well before then.

http://www.steverubel.com/attentionomics-captivating-attention-in-the-a

The Dirty Little Secrets of Search

2/14/2011 Update:  A reaction to this article:  http://battellemedia.com/archives/2011/02/this_is_news_jc_penney_and_link_farms.php

PRETEND for a moment that you are Google’s search engine.

Add to Portfolio

• Yahoo! Inc
• Time Warner Inc
• Penney, J C, Co
• Google Inc
• Bed Bath & Beyond Inc
• AT&T Inc
• Samsonite
• eBay Inc
• Macy's Inc
• Home Depot Inc
• Wal-Mart Stores Inc

Go to your Portfolio »

Enlarge This Image

Suzanne DeChillo/The New York Times

Doug Pierce of Blue Fountain Media examined J. C. Penney’s ranking on Google. His analysis suggested a world of intrigue in the search business.

Readers' Comments

Readers shared their thoughts on this article.

• Read All Comments (156) »

Someone types the word “dresses” and hits enter. What will be the very first result?

There are, of course, a lot of possibilities. Macy’s comes to mind. Maybe a specialty chain, like J. Crew or the Gap. Perhaps a Wikipedia entry on the history of hemlines.

O.K., how about the word “bedding”? Bed Bath & Beyond seems a candidate. Or Wal-Mart, or perhaps the bedding section of Amazon.com.

“Area rugs”? Crate & Barrel is a possibility. Home Depot, too, and Sears, Pier 1 or any of those Web sites with “area rug” in the name, like arearugs.com.

You could imagine a dozen contenders for each of these searches. But in the last several months, one name turned up, with uncanny regularity, in the No. 1 spot for each and every term:

J. C. Penney.

The company bested millions of sites — and not just in searches for dresses, bedding and area rugs. For months, it was consistently at or near the top in searches for “skinny jeans,” “home decor,” “comforter sets,” “furniture” and dozens of other words and phrases, from the blandly generic (“tablecloths”) to the strangely specific (“grommet top curtains”).

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/13/business/13search.html?_r=1

Pay Attention To These 7 Facebook Page Changes [VIDEO]

http://socialfresh.com/pay-attention-to-these-7-facebook-page-changes-video/

From the Bookshelf....

Content Rules: How to Create Killer Blogs, Podcasts, Videos, Ebooks, Webinars (and More) That Engage Customers and Ignite Your Business (New Rules Social Media Series)

Review:
http://www.amazon.com/review/RDKN4A56BZ3Q/ref=cm_cr_pr_viewpnt#RDKN4A56BZ3Q

Coping with Information Overload

For all the benefits of the information technology and communications revolution, it has a well-known dark side: information overload and its close cousin, attention fragmentation. These scourges hit CEOs and their colleagues in the C-suite particularly hard because senior executives so badly need uninterrupted time to synthesize information from many different sources, reflect on its implications for the organization, apply judgment, make trade-offs, and arrive at good decisions.


The importance of reserving chunks of time for reflection, and the difficulty of doing so, have been themes in management writing for decades. Look no further than Peter Drucker’s 1967 classic, The Effective Executive,1 which emphasized that “most of the tasks of the executive require, for minimum effectiveness, a fairly large quantum of time.” Drucker’s solutions for fragmented executives—reserve large blocks of time on your calendar, don’t answer the phone, and return calls in short bursts once or twice a day—sound remarkably like the ones offered up by today’s time- and information-management experts.

http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Organization/Talent/Recovering_from_information_overload_2735

Job Search: Using a Profession Service to Update Your Resume

Job seekers may need a few touch-ups and added professionalism for their Resume.  Recently, Laurie Walker at the Diamond HR Group provided me a great value in Resume consultation.  She provided me with an updated format, updated content,  and deliverables of  paper and electronic copies at a reasonable fixed price.

Visit Diamond's web page to see the wide variety of skills available for organizations and job hunters.

HOW TO: Design & Program a Facebook Landing Page for Your Business

Jonathan Goldford is a partner at JG Visual, an Internet strategy company that works with organizations to develop and implement their online presence. You can connect with Jonathan on the JG Visual Facebook Page.

Right now Facebook Pages and custom landing pages are bigger than bottled water was on December 31, 1999. Michael Jackson, Lady Gaga, Starbucks, and the TV show House each have more than fifteen million “Likes” and are growing rapidly.

http://mashable.com/2011/02/04/design-facebook-landing-page/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mashable+%28Mashable%29

New White Paper: Evidence-Based Search Marketing

Search marketers are under increasing pressure to deliver better results at lower costs. But the field of search marketing is relatively immature, and much of the research and emerging standards that gets published comes with minimal oversight and critical review. Search marketing specialists must find new ways to efficiently process this dynamic and ever-increasing set of best practices, and efficiently apply them in order to improve the outcomes of their campaigns.
Evidence-based search marketing (EBSM) is a new approach to campaign management in which search marketing specialists are empowered with actionable evidence, relevant data, and decision-support technology to improve results and efficiency. Based on the principles of evidence-based medicine, EBSM offers search marketers a rigorous process to conduct original research, objectively review secondary research and industry developments, maintain a library of evidence-based best practices and apply them to their daily campaigns.


http://www.thesearchagents.com/2011/01/new-white-paper-evidence-based-search-marketing/

Google Hotpot now on Google.com and around the world

2/01/2011 06:10:00 PM

Back in November, we introduced Hotpot, a new local recommendation engine powered by you and your friends. Using Hotpot is simple: you rate places on google.com/hotpot—restaurants, hotels, cafes—and add friends on Hotpot whose opinions you trust. Then the next time you perform a search, Google will serve up personalized results, listing places based on your tastes, as well as recommendations from your friends.

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/google-hotpot-now-on-googlecom-and.html