Zingo! The Addictive Word Bingo Game

After having the server wiped out that housed my favorite game of all time, Zingo!, I have finally finished recreating the game, now using jQuery instead of Java. Overall, the game playing experience is pretty similar to the game before. The only difference is that there are 3 rounds and points are doubled and tripled, respectively.

I played the game myself for a while to test, and I have to admit, I had trouble putting up decent scores on the Medium & Hard difficulties. You have 5 guesses to guess each word, and there is a dictionary of almost 9,000 words. I'm glad to have the game back up and running, so check it out at http://apps.facebook.com/zingogame/.

Facebook surpasses Zynga's Texas Hold'em as Most Popular Facebook Page

According to the Facebook page ranking site SocialPages.me, Facebook has recently surpassed Zynga's Texas Hold'em Poker as the page with the most fans on the popular social network. Facebook currently has upwards of 45 million "likes", while Zynga's Texas Hold'em page has around 44 million. Other popular pages on Facebook include that of rapper Eminem, video streaming service YouTube, and performer Lady Gaga.

SocialPages.me is a new social web site whose mission is to rank all the pages on Facebook. You can only view the site results by logging in through Facebook Connect, but after you login it is pretty cool. The site imports the pages you like and shows you how many people like them and how popular they are compared to the rest of Facebook and the pages' categories.

Funny Phishing Email

I have seen some phishing emails in my time, but this one made me laugh :) Come on, don't you guys have a little creativity?

Mailbox Shutdown Notification
Webmaster [Webmaster@uwsuper.edu]
Wednesday, June 01, 2011 8:43 PM

You are expected to verify your email account to avoid mailbox shutdown :

Login Username:
Login password: **************

To avoid shutting down of your mailbox which could lead to loss of your important files on our server,you must send these details on receipt of
this message.

Thank you very much.

Webmaster

Why I Didn't Buy the LinkedIn IPO

When I heard the expected share price of $LNKD rose from $30-35 to $40-$45 the other day, I began to grow a little skeptical of the upside potential of getting in early. Obviously, LinkedIn is a company with a great foundation and room for growth, but given the fact their market is ultra-competitive and they have yet-unestablished revenue streams, I found it harder to justify the price. Then again, it is a great company with great future potential.

Fast forward to today, the stock opens at $83/share. Wow. I didn't expect such a huge surge, even given LinkedIn's brand value and future potential. I guess $LNKD is the "hot" tech stock to get, and people have to put their money somewhere. But do the numbers justify this surge in price?

Currently, the stock is trading around ~$105!!! WTF?!? This is gross speculation at its finest, people. I am now holding for a dip.

The Big Money of Search Engine Fraud

There has been a reported rise in the amount of click fraud of Australian advertisers, at an estimated 10 percent of total clicks. That equates to about $100 million per year. Google settled a class action lawsuit back in 2006 to the tune of $90 million to advertisers who were victims of click fraud through their service.

Click fraud is well-known among search engine industry experts, yet it doesn’t get too much attention in the press. Strange, given the potentially huge numbers that are being thrown around. This study, by Click Forensics, Inc., in 2008 found that 16.6% of all pay-per-clicks in the Q4 2007 on the internet were fraudulent. Paid search advertising dollars spent in 2011 are estimated to be around $29.8 billion.

Google claims that "undetected" click fraud constitutes only 0.02% of all clicks. Even given this estimate, consider the huge sum of money involved in this little-publicized industry. Click fraud could constitute upwards of $4 billion per year of paid advertising dollars if click fraud is actually closer to the 16% range. Keep in mind that Google’s estimate only refers to "undetected" clicks, so the number is definitely higher than 0.02%.

Microsoft actually filed a civil complaint against a couple that had devised a click fraud scheme that depleted competitors' ad budgets in order to promote their own ads to the top of pages for certain keywords, such as "auto insurance quote". This first-ever lawsuit involving click fraud had Microsoft seeking $750,000 in damages. Microsoft estimates he made $250,000 from the practice, and the company says it refunded $1.5m to advertisers for Lam's alleged fake clicks.

Given the explosive growth of the internet, especially in the mobile arena, and with it the expansion and competition of paid online advertising, I would hope that Google, Bing, and Yahoo! are committed to preventing click fraud as much as possible, and compensating their defrauded advertisers when they do detect fraud. The real problem is that while current fraud detection methods are advanced, bot creators and search experts are continuing to create ways to game these advertising systems and extract large sums of money without being detected.

Comcast Outage in Atlanta - 5/14

UPDATE 8:31 PM EST -- It seems that Comcast is finally back up and running. Still no details as to why they went down--I'll try to follow up on Monday and see if I can get an explanation.

UPDATE 6:49 PM EST -- Business-class internet still down (Perimeter area)

I just got off the phone with Comcast and there is a confirmed internet outage in parts of Atlanta. I will post an update when the problem is fixed.

Of course, right after I was telling people that surprisingly, our Comcast internet has been great. Super-fast speeds at a steal of a price. Hopefully it won't be down long! We've got a business to run...

Why I'm Buying the LinkedIn IPO

I have been doing some research about LinkedIn in regards to their upcoming IPO on the NYSE, and the more I see the more I want to buy in...

100+ Million Network

Say what you will about Facebook, but LinkedIn's network is really its most valuable asset. Over 100 Million professionals with searchable resumes...

Advertising

Not much to say here, other than they will continue to generate solid revenues through advertising and job postings.

Corporate Recruiting Solutions

LinkedIn's Corporate Recruiting Solutions are the secret weapon behind my heightened interest in their IPO--something I've been suspecting, but LinkedIn has been slow to roll out. They basically partner with recruiters and search firms to provide them with search & candidate management tools for the tune of $5k per seat / year. It may not be a huge market, but it is a valuable revenue stream that I am excited to see them engage in.

Summary

Some critics disagree with my opinion as to the growth potential of the stock, but I think they have a solid lock on a very valuable market sector--the social network of business professionals.

J.C. Penny Games Their Way to the Top

This recent article in the New York Times suggests that J.C. Penny has “gamed” the way Google ranks web pages in order to make www.jcpenny.com the #1 result for numerous combinations of shopping-related keywords. According to the article, J.C. Penny exploited the ranking criteria that ranks pages based on how many pages with similar criteria link to a particular site. Links to J.C. Penny’s homepage were found in sites such as nuclear.engineeringaddict.com, bulgariapropertyportal.com, and elistofbanks.com with phrases like “cocktail dresses”, “evening dresses” and “black dresses”. The abruptness of J.C. Penny’s rise in the search results has caused some to question the fairness and accuracy of Google’s secret ranking formula. With online search becoming more commonplace every day, thousands of companies and individuals will spend upwards of $25 billion in 2011 to get their site at the front of the line. But how will Google and other search engines keep their results relevant and resistant to these types of keyword- and link-pumping schemes?