OF A GOLDEN AGE

Even for those with no involvement in SEO (search engine optimization) marketing, SEOmoz has an interesting, very visual post of observations on the blog posts linked-to most in other blogs or sites.

It’s skewed because the statistics are for a list of 40 SEO blogs, not anything more general, but still compelling. SEOmoz found that the “sweet spots” for title length and post length were 14-16 words and 2328 to 2618, respectively. Goodness, I don’t know if I ever read blog posts that long, and may in fact skip them altogether at first glance. Not kidding about that.

As for a 16-word title . . . Well, you can see here how successful that is or isn’t. I think it’s funny looking, but it at least doesn’t break the look of my WordPress theme. I also had a hard time coming up with sixteen words, so I resorted to a list of nouns. Yeahhh.

SEOmoz is a total rabbithole. My colleague here reads and relies on it pretty regularly, and now that I’ve started keeping up with it on a casual level, I am pretty addicted.

My friend Emily (of the Petit Four) managed to shut the case on one of our great personal mysteries when she traced from the blog Orangette to its progenitor Molly’s new restaurant Delancey. Seeing the “designed by” tag in the corner, she learned the site was the work of Sam T. Schick, our former editor-in-chief and object of great collective fascination.

More than someone I find interesting, Schick is responsible for events that changed my life — namely, when I was 17 and a freshman and a dutiful head-nodding staff writer, he pulled me up when someone quit and installed me in her place. I stayed on staff as the news editor for two years then ran the paper myself for two more, leaving reluctantly when I graduated and fearing for is future well being. I began as someone who could write and ended up becoming an insatiable aesthete with a particular eye and deep personal investment in whatever I do. Sometimes my coworkers or friends don’t understand why I have to spend the extra time to really love the way something looks, why I actually use all those features Microsoft Word offers to change the line height or indents. In turn, I have no idea how those people don’t see the same way.

Schick now operates Sam T. Schick & Wandering Works (what a great name) and seems to be making good for himself, which is so pleasing. He left school and disappeared, and we heard bits and pieces that usually were unsubstantiated. In the website for Wandering Works, I see the same sparse, simple layout that he valued when he trained me at the paper, the same love of negative space, an overall uncluttered look, and serifs. It’s satisfying.

As most internetizens do, I occasionally Google myself and my domain and see what’s up.

Aetataureate shows up on some spammy-looking website that compiles a list of “Websites with ‘tata’ in the name.”

Sorry folks, no tatas here. Move along.

I haven’t been sleeping much, or well, for reasons unclear. The weather finally fell over into summer here so that could have something to do with it; I’ve started swimming again, but this week my work schedule is backwards and my body may just be screwed up. Either way, I don’t love this.

My new favorite late-night time killer is this Flash game on FreeArcade called Globs. (The site is loaded with ads and most of them have soundtracks, be forewarned.)

Also, I’m intrigued by TotalNetGuard, a Christian-themed ISP whose purpose is to block whatever scale of objectionable material you choose. Obviously I’m not religious and this isn’t a product marketed to me, but the internet is full of unavoidable inappropriate stuff. I like that people can make an informed decision to avoid what they don’t want coming into their homes.

I love the YouTube video embedded in Organic’s post If Harry Potter Did Packaging Design. It is also appealing on a subliminal level to any child who ever loved the box better than the gift.

Oh, Rands . . .

The problem with explaining Twitter to the uninitiated is, well, you have to say Twitter. A lot. Then you end up saying “tweet” or “twittersphere” or “twoot” and then you flash back to the embarrassing conversation with your Mom when you tried to explain what a blog was.

“No no no Mom . . . it’s an important thing.”

“What is?”

Sigh. “A blog.”

I don’t have an existing tag for Twitter since I don’t like or use it (beyond following Graham Elliot and fake Christopher Walken in my Google Reader), but autocomplete suggested “twee” and that made me smile.