hello! yoshi

Hey everyone! This is Colin from good ol’ therapy in the making! And as you can imagine I’m here for Free For All Friday. Who doesn’t love a free for all? Any kind of free for all. No wait, that came out dirtier than what it sounded like in my head.

So, as some of you may know, this is the first time I’m taking part in FFAF. In fact it is the first time I’m opening my own blog for FFAF. So once you’re done reading and commenting here, why don’t you come over my blog and show my guest bloggers and me some comment love? You can even guest blog yourself if you want!

I use Firefox and I have a nasty habit. I no longer use the address bar. I type almost everything into the Google search box and sometimes even URL’s! Apparently I am not the only one that does that, I read somewhere that it is common and people use Google as an entry point to sites they want to visit even if they know the address.

A few minutes ago I tried to google free for all friday hoping to find other blogs that are participating this week but I pressed return before tying “friday”. As expected most of the results where not related to FFAF but what surprised me were the sponsored links on the side.

I took my Google Adwords Advertising Professional exam almost a year ago and I remember most of the rules regarding ad copy. I remember very well that this sort of thing was not allowed…

Have you noticed a decrease in the quality of Google AdWords ads recently too, or is it just me? Do you use the google search bar of your browser as an address bar too or am I addicted?

This morning seems like I’m rushing here and there and here and there. I get around to greeting my peeps, and first, what happens, I get an email from Katie telling me I dropped from the world. WTH? I’m right there, logged on GTalk. Then I get another message on Yahoo from Melanie: Hmm. No, I don’t see you online. WTF? What’s up with Google this morning? So I then notice that Katie is “offline”. Then I message Jules and sure enough I get the stupid error box : Cannot send your message bleah bleah bleah. Damn Google. what gives?

So I’m restarting apps, restarting browsers, going this way and that, rushing rushing rushing. Life seems like it’s a big rush sometimes doesn’t it? Anyways, finally after all this time, Google wakes up and now I can reach it.

Of course, I’m sure it could have been my connection to Google too. But you know what, it’s just easier to blame them. Danalyn and I say it all the time, “Google sucks”.

As you can see, I’ve decided to add some Google Ads. So what does that mean folks? It means a Poll! So here we are, vote vote vote!

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Ok, here’s a boring post where I talk about things I’ve added to the site recently. I know you’re cheering right now right?

You’ll notice I added a contact form to the site, this is for anyone who would like to get a hold of me, but for some reason do not have my email or forgot my email address. (or more likely, have not kept up with all my email address changes.)

You’ll also notice that I’ved added a new “Now Reading” widget on the sidebar that let’s you know what book I’m now reading, and any past books I’ve read and reviewed. It also shows you what books I’ve got stored up in my queue to read, which are a lot, but I only listed a few of them (for now).

I also started adding google ads. Although this might change. I’m just not sure yet. I’m also putting in Text Link Ads. I’m not sure my site is even popular enough to worry about it, but we’ll see in the upcoming months. I know a few people who are using it and if I got what they got, then my hosting would pay for itself. (which is a good thing folks)

Here’s the interactive portion. What plugins do you have installed? I think I might have too many of them, but I’m curious to see what everyone has installed. (again, I know.)

So today, the news is Microsoft putting in a $44.6 billion bid for Yahoo. “Software giant offers $31 a share - a 62% premium - in deal that could reorder online ad market. Microsoft’s Ballmer: ‘Major milestone.’”

The biggest concern that I’ve been seeing after talking to some folks is how Flickr will be affected. I mean if this deal goes through, will Microsoft totally ruin it? We all know the crazy things that Microsoft has done, but they are still popular and they are still widely used. Like Hotmail. But only time can tell.

This will also make them the second to Google in search engine shares. From the article: “Google reigns over 58.4% of the U.S. market, while Yahoo has 22.9% and Microsoft’s share is just 9.8%, according to comScore, a research firm that tracks Internet traffic.”