Spamming search engines with invisible text

Thursday, 11 May 2006

Got some SMS spam from my current spouse telling me she found the “chaise lounge” she was (apparently) looking for and “could she buy it while it was a bargain of a lifetime?”.

“Chaise lounge?”, I said. “What’s that?”, thinking of a popular nightclub here in Melbourne.

“Google it”, she says.

That’s when I stumble across Egamma Modern Masters, proudly proclaiming themselves as “the home of modern furniture”. The first thing I notice is some large black text which flashes before my eyes and then disappears, only to be replaced by their stellar example of minimalist design:

Is SEO overrated?

Saturday, 29 April 2006

For those who visit here regularly, my views on search engine optimisation “techniques” are pretty much known. Recently, I engaged in an online discussion in a forum thread which attempted to get different opinions on whether SEO was in fact overrated.

Sony’s stupid email patent

Tuesday, 25 April 2006

I have to admit that I do enjoy getting stuck into Sony and their inferior software. According to US patent 7016940, Sony now own the exclusive right to make a piece of software which will:

Make the recipient of electronic mail quickly and surely take actions desired by the sender.

The way this is supposed to work is through automatic script attachments to outgoing emails which then get automatically executed when the recipients open those emails. My first thought was along the lines of some really annoying popups endlessly reminding you that you haven’t yet replied but I’m sure I could think of other uses, if I really tried hard enough.

Infosys from the inside

Monday, 3 April 2006

I got a weblink sent to me by a friend, who suggested it would make a very good read, considering it appeared to be written by someone who either dislikes the infamous Indian outsourcing giant Infosys and still works there or dislikes the infamous Indian outsourcing giant Infosys and no longer works there.

In any case, the following transcript first appeared at http://insideinfosys.blogspot.com/ on March 25, 2006. A few days later, and suspecting that this type of negative content won’t be tolerated by the infamous Indian outsourcing giant Infosys for long, I decided to take a copy for offline reading at a more convenient time.

Where’s your home page?

Thursday, 23 February 2006

I got an email from a friend of mine who occasionally reads this blog. His comments about one aspect of this website, and my subsequent reply, were interesting enough for me want to use them as the basis for this blog entry.