MappingTheWeb //

Today’s “Cash or Trash” company is MySpace.

If you are unfamiliar with Cash or Trash, here is a quick rundown:

In every post, I will name a well-known web 2.0 company. Readers will then have to decide whether the company is worth investing in or whether it’s doomed for bankruptcy. In other words, would you invest cash in the company or do you think it should be thrown in the trash?

Provide a brief argument as to why or why not you would invest in the company in the comments. Debating and arguing is highly recommended and encouraged, as long as arguments are well sought-out and thorough.

A couple of points to keep in mind:

• Determine whether you would invest at TODAY’S valuation. Forget past growth. In other words, do you still think the company has a lot of upside potential?
• Don’t treat your ‘cash’ like play money. Would you actually see yourself investing in the company if given the opportunity to purchase shares?
• If you are not familiar with the company or service, refrain from posting until you try the service.

Or is it the legend of the lack of ‘e’?

In any case, Flickr started the grammatical error trend. My guess is that they wanted the domain Flicker.com, but it had already been taken. So lazily, they dumped the ‘e’ and the name was born. This web 2.0 naming trend still lives on…

Today, when I see a company name ending in ‘r’ but lacking the ‘e’, I instinctively and unconsciously group it in a wannabe web 2.0 category. In 95%+ cases, the company has made a lame attempt at trying to jump on the bandwagon and ride the web 2.0 buzz to the bank. But I believe most new web observers can see right through the smokes and mirrors.

Now, I said 95%+ as there have been a few Flickr successors who have achieved some level of fame and success using the ‘r’ suffix. Here’s my list:

• Jaxtr (in BETA)
• Zooomr 

On the other hand, there have been many ‘r’ companies that have failed to impress - not because of the stereotypical web 2.0 name, but because of the product or service. Here is the rest of the pack:

• Blufr
• Browsr
• Coastr
• Empressr
• Flagr
• gpokr
• Grazr
• GTalkr
• Isolatr
• Preloadr
• Retrievr
• Scanr
• Socializr
• SoonR
• StockPickr
• Streakr
• Talkr
• Wrickr
• Zapr

I know that there are many others I missed. Please feel free to add your favourites in the comments.

From now on, let it be known that ‘r’ is the power letter of web 2.0. Also let it be known that if every second start-up uses this naming scheme, we are definitely in a bubble.

NOTE: Some of the companies listed with the rest of the pack have produced quality products and/or services, but have failed to generate traffic and a revenue model.

A lot of people stress over SEO. Many believe that a certain keyword density ratio is absolutely necessary. Others pledge that a given web page should be structured in a specific way. Though both notions deserve some attention, often times they get overblown.

The best bang-for-buck can be achieved by focusing on several specific locations of a page. Maximizing ROI, while minimizing time and effort is the ultimate goal. Having said that, here are the most important parts on a page in my mind (in order):

1. Page title
2. META description
3. Header (h1)
4. Page URL

If you can insert your given keywords into these spots, then you’re already miles ahead of most sites.

Obviously, the page title is absolutely key as most know. My first article on SEO was devoted entirely to this part of the page. Next, we have the META description. This is the text that shows up in the search results when an engine returns your listing. Meticulous planning of the description is often overlooked, but cannot be understated. Headers, more specifically h1’s and h2’s, are the most important on-page terms. Finally, if you are able to somehow fit your keywords or terms in the page URL, it will help improve your rank.

Another thing to keep in mind is prominence. Simply put, I always try to place my keywords as close to the beginning of the tag as possible. This increases the prominence of the keyword or term and places more emphasis on its importance.

In the era of Web 1.0, META keywords were at the heart of SEO. However, keyword SPAM and other illegitimate tactics forced changes. This is why Google, and its PageRank, emerged as the leader. Nowadays, META keywords are on the brink of extinction. Google doesn’t take them into consideration at all. Yahoo supposedly does to a small degree, but don’t hold your breath.

By targeting the 4 specific areas listed above, you can expect your SEO rankings to increase by a large degree. Oh… and you might want to try and acquire some back-links

For more information, view: The 4 Most Important Parts of a Page for SEO.

It looks like Jaxtr will be launching into BETA mode soon.

I received an e-mail from the company stating that they will soon be adding people to their private BETA test. They go on to say: “People with active social networking profiles and blogs will make the best testers for us since we want to make sure the jaxtr widgets get posted in places where many people see them and use them.”

If you aren’t familiar with the company and/or don’t know what they do, you can read my initial post on Jaxtr. Essentially, the start-up has created a widget that users can embed in their social network profile or blog. This widget gives the viewer of the profile the ability to call the user via a phone using VOIP.

Though this little widget presents many security and privacy concerns (see previous Jaxtr post), its simplicity and functionality may overcome its pitfalls and people may be pleasantly surprised. In addition, the viral nature of th service bodes well for its potential success. As I’ve said before, widgets are an extremely effective, low cost way of driving qualified traffic and creating brand exposure.

I’m excited to try the service and I look forward to the BETA launch.

I don’t know about you, but every time I read the headline “Company A buys Company B”, I immediately and instinctively click on the link. For example, when I scanned over my RSS feeds and saw that eBay had acquired StubHub, I had to find out more.

There is nothing more exciting or news-worthy than a buy-out. But why are we so intrigued by acquisitions? Why do we immediately want to delve deeper into the news of a take-over? Well, there are several reasons…

• People love reading about the success of the founders. Furthermore, people are extremely interested in how much money these entrepreneurs obtained from the deal. Everyone loves to see the underdog succeed. Others pull motivation from these success stories and visualize themselves achieving a similar fate. The ROI equation is always fascinating as well. For example… “The company only invested X thousand dollars and sold for Y millions dollars. That means they made Z times on their money!” It’s inspiring, refreshing, and enlightening.
• Other people click on the acquisition news to find out more about what the take-over company plans to do with its new purchase.The most curious observers are usually users of the company that got acquired. Everyone is always interested in how the integration process will occur. In many cases, integration is non-existant and the take-over company lets the little guy develop on his own. Sounds like a web 2.0 mutual fund.

Sites like TechCrunch and GigaOM thrive off acquisition news. Not only are they usually the first to learn of such news, but they’re also usually able to provide exclusive details and in-depth analysis. These sources and distributors usually get bombarded not only with direct traffic, but also link-backs and trackbacks.

Now if only I could get these exclusives… I’d be able to provide sexy, tantalizing RSS feed headings…mmmmm…