• Friend requests… fake accounts… hot stock-photo girls adding me to spam their site or pics… Poker groups… ugh leave me alone.
• Site Errors when trying to use the site are out of control. They've fixed a lot of them but still with the errors. Even though the messages say "This error has been forwarded to MySpace's technical group" I can't deal with it. If they could they'd have to rebuild the site from the ground up - it's a wreck.
• It's become too band/music oriented, for me at least. Sites like last.fm work better for me discovering music.
• Every "new feature" they implement is already on Facebook, or other social sites - they don't innovate, they copy and not well mind you.
• It's run by a bunch of suits who couldn't explain the meaning of "social media" if it was on a cue card.
• The blogging feature is a joke. No RSS feeds? Nuff said. If you don't know what an RSS feed is yet… you fail - watch "RSS in Plain English"
• Photos.. IF the uploader even works it's not a good photo management system. They recently added the URL for the photo and the embed code but again… way late and there's no tagging, searching, grouping with other people's images, multiple sizes, etc… Flickr.com is the way to go and works so much better and can work with any other site.
• MySpace mobile… fail - is it that hard to make a semi-feature packed mobile version of your site? that works…? I mean I can log into my frickin bank and do mobile banking but I can't read or see a comment or messages… ugh
• The bulletin lists… Do I really care about the last person you kissed or thought about? Really? It's the reincarnation of the dreaded "Fw: Fw: Fw: Fw: Fw: Fw: Fw: Fw: Best Joke Ever" email chains… just stop already!
• Advertisements… granted I block ads with AdBlock Plus for Firefox but how much frickin adspace does one site need? Christ!, they sell out all the usable interface.
• If you actually use your myspace page for your business - you fail - it just proves you don't know what the hell you're doing and there's a 98% chance you're not hitting your target demographic by doing it - you just heard it was the right thing to do by somebody who also didn't know what the hell they were doing. (unless you're a band / DJ, or stripper / escort, or a car model / go-go dancer - notice the groupings lol)
• Even some of my most non-internet savvy friends who don't even have a MySpace profile have recently created Facebook profiles and have found me on there all on their own, and more are coming online every day. Facebook is finally digging in deeper and hitting those scattered and lost souls and helping to connect them with the rest of the world.
• And finally, the scene is tired and dead. MySpace used to be the hot startup and place to be (years ago), until all the problems became clearly evident to everybody and the spammers and phishers abused the system. By the time MySpace did anything about it, the damage was done. The people in the know have moved on.

Thing is, I set it up so I'm private, dumped all the people I didn't want, blocked bands and most friend requests, and it has become silent for a while now. So silent that I very rarely even log in anymore. The only real reason I've kept my profile for so long is that there's some people that just haven't gotten with the times and are hanging on to MySpace. It's time though that I move on and if they'd like to use real social media and friend me on Facebook, Flickr, Twitter or any of them they can, but I'm not hanging around anymore for them.

See my about page for where else to find me.

rYnoweb.com by Chuck Reynolds

I can't say enough about how important personal branding is these days, and I do blabber about it all the time, so secure your name and your kid's names because the internet isn't going anywhere and managing your reputation online starts with owning your personal brand.

Most registrars should have active registration for .ME today.  I personally always use NameCheap for all my domains but if you are like the rest of the sheep you can use the other guys.

So what domain.ME did you buy today?  I got ChuckReynolds.me (which for now I'm just forwarding to my .us name) - couldn't get Geno.me though… doh

rYnoweb.com by Chuck Reynolds

So yesterday Adobe and Google announced that Google, and soon Yahoo (after they "work some bugs out"), will be improving their indexing of Flash files.  This won’t solve all the problems with Flash content showing up on search engines and it's not the complete and total package but it's a great step in the right direction for Adobe Flash and their users.

So what's going to be indexed?

All "textual content" in Flash files.  It's not everything, including images and any descriptive text that those would contain, but will at least start to index your keywords and phrases.

What's not going to be indexed?

I'm not a Flash expert by any means so I'm not real sure how Flash files are built but if you include your text in that initial movie, you're okay, but if you pull data from XML files or another .html file Google currently won't include those.  Also if you include your SWF file by way of certain Javascripting, Googlebot may or may not recognize that.  They didn't get specific on that part but if you read into Googlebot's javascript ability I'm sure you'll figure it out.  (Give it a little more time and I bet Google figures that stuff out though.)

So now what?

I'm in no rush to start developing things in Flash just because of this news but it is good to know that Adobe is working on getting this done.  I still have my qualms about Flash and the way most web sites use it, its accessibility issues, and the problems of users having older versions and having to update, etc.

I still say web site content and its navigation should not reside within a flash file and should be semantically marked up for the best search results and best accessibility.  This news also worries me that the people making those crappy flash sites will only use this news to justify their bad sites/code are just that much better.  Fail.

Read the news from Google and from Adobe for source information and some more details.

EDIT: (19 July 2008) - Google has rolled out an "update that enables support for common JavaScript techniques for embedding Flash, including SWFObject and SWFObject2″.  So one of the first issues with their news they've already fixed.

rYnoweb.com by Chuck Reynolds

Points to note: I used the same address of 140 S. Ash Ave, Tempe Az 85281 for all. Each image was screenshot with windows print screen and cropped to the same size and saved out as a quality 75 JPG from photoshop. (FYI - I only added white covers to hide the advertising on Mapquest and they also had no data on the furthest zoom level so I had to back it off one notch. Also mapblast (MSN) doesn't even offer satellite views and is sooo horrible of a User Interface I excluded them from this experiment.  As a late addition (30 April @ 1900) I added Live maps because I forgot about that one initially - thanks to @paulsutton and Ben Atkin for pointing that out).

Google Maps:

[Map Link] - [Flickr Photo Link]

Live Maps:

[Map Link] - [Flickr Photo Link]

Yahoo Maps:

[Map Link] - [Flickr Photo Link]

MapQuest:

[Map Link] - [Flickr Photo Link]

As you can see the resolution and zoom level in Google Maps is of much higher quality and with the ability to edit the marker in Google My Maps, I was able to better show where our actual office is instead of being in the middle of the street down the road.  After reviewing Live maps I'm somewhat of a fan of that as it offers a satellite view and also a "birds eye view" which is like an isometric view.  Both Google and Live have very clear high resolution images but again because of the overall functionality, and editablity of Google… I still will use that

Conclusion?  I'll keep using Google Maps - maps.google.com - keep an eye on Live maps.

rYnoweb.com by Chuck Reynolds

So for a while now I've been wanting to utilize Brian Shaler's CrappyGraphs.com site. Until recently I never had a thought until I wanted to show how a heavy workload was affecting my health as of late.

Therefore I created the graph above to show that with a normal workload I tend to spend more time working out and eating/drinking properly; however the heavier workload it seems I come under, I start eating worse (fast food and even eating later into the night), drinking more pop/soda/energy drinks (to keep chugging along for longer periods of time), and that usually means working late into the night and sleeping later and missing morning runs or working out altogether. By including mental health, I just mean the stress that comes with a heavy workload usually isn't that good for you either.

Well there's my first graph using CrappyGraphs.com - maybe you can relate, maybe not. Either way - now you've got the 411.

rYnoweb.com by Chuck Reynolds

If you're using an image replacement technique for design purposes it's okay, BUT use common sense and understand the word "moderation". Much like an alt attribute on an image, the text needs to be descriptive but not full of useless garbage just to throw keywords at the bots. So when you replace an H1 with an image and put text-indent:-9999px or display:none or visibility:hidden on the text within the H1; as long as you keep it description of what the image is you're fine. If your H1 image replacement is the HLF Industries logotype, and your text says "HLF Industries" - there's nothing wrong with that. Now if you put tons of keywords in with the HFL Industries… now you're intent is not with the benefit of accessibility and your users, but to gain rank illegally and you’re not using common sense. That's when Google starts to lay down the law with their algorithm.

The same goes for sliding door images and navigation bars with text in list items that are "hidden". It's descriptive text for the button navigation and there for text browsers and audible accessibility reasons.

Now if you don't believe ME, then read the following comments and posts from Matt Cutts and Susan Moskwa of Google and feel free, Beau, to forward my comments onto your client if it would help.

1) Matt Cutts is a software engineer at Google and when posting about a site using some shady tactics got misunderstood and taken out of context by the community. He then made some comments and cleared up the situation, leaving us with some definitive answers on the topic.

Initial post on MattCutts.com - and his comment on ThreadWatch regarding people taking it out of context.

2) From a Google Groups discussion in the Webmaster Help thread (located here):
Susan Moskwa, who is one of Google's Webmaster Central Google Groups support people, said it is acceptable, based on intent. Note the keyword there… "intent".

"If your intent in hiding text is to deceive the search engines, we frown on that; if your intent is purely to improve the visual user experience (e.g. by replacing some text with a fancier image of that same text), you don't need to worry.
Of course, as with many techniques, there are shades of gray between "this is clearly deceptive and wrong" and "this is perfectly acceptable". Matt [Cutts] did say that hiding text moves you a step further towards the gray area. But if you’re running a perfectly legitimate site, you don't need to worry about it. If, on the other hand, your site already exhibits a bunch of other semi-shady techniques, hidden text starts to look like one more item on that list."

3) Roger Johansson at 456 Berea Street in 2005 weighed in on the situation and Matt Cutts said "We can flag text that appears to be hidden using CSS at Google. To date we have not algorithmically removed sites for doing that." It is now 3 years later and Google still hasn't done that, and in my opinion they won't. That comment here at ThreadWatch.

I hope that helps Beau. I don't consider myself a SEO guru by any means but I am on the front lines and have been at it for some years so if that's any consolation; then there ya go.

For further reading here are some of my bookmarks on the subject: http://del.icio.us/chuckreynolds/seo

rYnoweb.com by Chuck Reynolds

What is it?

It's where all your "fail" shouts and aggravations entered on Twitter are pulled into one spot and displayed for everybody to laugh at. It's powered by Tweetscan, PHP and the awesome MagpieRSS aggregator.
EDIT:  As of early May 2008 I've updated the site to use Summize.com for search as it proved better and far more reliable.

Appreciation and help

I've got to send props out to Brent Spore (@iboughtamac on twitter) for taking my quick idea and comments and busting out a sweet design in under an hour allowing me to code the whole thing and launch in under three. Original ideas came from TwitterTale and Brent's original Drnkn site.

Also shout-out to Beau (@beauhlf on twitter) for helping tweak my PHP code.

In closing…

I'd appreciate it if you go check it out at FAILreport.com and let me know what you think. Also add me on Twitter if you haven't already: @chuckreynolds. Thanks and see you soon with some more fun projects. ;)

rYnoweb.com by Chuck Reynolds

Quick History

This blog, in her hay-day, used to get around a thousand or so unique hits a day, depending on what I posted, and she made some good revenue for me through the Google Adsense program. I'd follow whatever was the latest trend on the net, whether it be funny, dirty, "illegal" or anything really, it didn't matter; I'd post about it, link to cool stuff or host files that nobody could find for them to come here and get. All that and all before Digg, StumbleUpon, or any of the other traffic generators that are utilized today.

So why did I stop? Honestly it hurt my relationship at the time and I got tired of doing it - it got to be a job in itself I didn't want and I didn't really care about anything I was writing and had no passion or drive to continue doing it. In another way, it was also due to me entering into the professional industry and beginning to learn how important name branding was starting to become on the net due to the way search and privacy in general was going. So one day I gave it all up, stopped blogging, stopped collecting checks from Google, and took the site down, removed the links and files and locked the doors.

Re-Introduction

So why am I back and where is rynoweb.com going now? Well I've never gone anywhere really. To make a long story short, I moved a few times, had a few girlfriends, grew up a bit, and more importantly over time I started two companies, WebMediaRx and LogoALL, which is where I am now. On the surface I design, build and market Web sites and also create promotional items and decorate apparel for clients all day everyday. So what now?

What it's All About

I still have that uncanny knack of finding stuff on the Internet but more importantly I read and learn a ton. I love learning just about anything really and the web industry changes so much from week to week it works well for me. The problem comes in when I want to open up a discussion or when I have questions or an opinion on something or have something to teach others that I've picked up or discovered and I have no where to discuss it, ask it, put it or say it.

Welcome to Rynoweb

I therefore welcome you to the new and most definitely improved rynoweb.com and the new home and postings of Chuck Reynolds. The topics here will range from developing Web sites, to user security, to search engines, to Web tech, to social anything, to tips and suggestions, to art and design, to daily life on the grid. Mostly though, the articles will either educate you or expand your thinking on a subject and hopefully get you to discuss and interact with me and the rest of the community. These are my stories, opinions, and vices… here on rynoweb.

Outtro

As a final note; the link on your name to your site after posting a comment is free from the nofollow attribute common to blogs because I believe if you took the time to contribute to my site, I should therefore do the same in return and allow the engines to follow you back to your home. The sidebar is somewhat bare right now and I lack archives and informative page(s) but this site is most definitely a work in progress and will continue to be. I don't feel anything is ever perfect and therefore will continue to modify and improve this site as I do with myself in my profession.

Thanks to all who have read to this point and as always, stay classy and feel free to comment and contribute!

Cheers,
Chuck Reynolds

rYnoweb.com by Chuck Reynolds