“Search Usability” Owned by Shari Thurow?
I stumbled across Shari Thurow’s site today and noticed that she was using a ™ on the phrase “search usability.” That is such a standard industry phrase, that I thought it must be some kind of mistake, so I searched for it at the USPTO.
Sure enough, there was a trademark filed by Shari last May for the phrase “search usability.” Apparently, Shari feels she invented that phrase and should have legal rights to it. I wonder what Jakob Nielson thinks about that? As far as I can tell, he was the first to publish content on the web talking about search usability.
Fortunately, it looks like the USPTO is going to deny the registration. I’m not sure why Shari thought it would be worth the time and money to pursue it. She tried a few years ago to register a trademark for the term TrafficNode, and was unsuccessful. If you can’t get approval for a term that actually is fairly original, how could you come to the conclusion that you stood a chance with something like search usability?
Rockstars Blog is Now Live
We finally got around to getting the SEO Rockstars blog going. (Thanks to Dave for providing us the new template) We’ll be posting about upcoming shows, as well as some recaps of past shows. If we get real motivated, we might even add the podcasts as well.
If you have any comments or ideas for future shows, stop by and let us know.
The Stupid Things We Say
I’ve been getting emails from people complaining that I haven’t been blogging much lately. So I told myself that I would devote all of Friday to the blog. My plan was to scour the web looking for important stories that were begging for my commentary.
Forbes.com Gets a Handjob?
A couple of weeks ago, on SEO Rockstars, I mentioned how I had stumbled across some quality parasite SEO located on Forbes.com.
f you scroll all the way to the bottom of the page, you’ll see a small JavaScript powered dropdown menu that says "Special Advertising." In that dropdown menu, you’ll fine a big list of "Special Advertising Phrases." Clicking on any of the phrases in the dropdown menu will take you to a "Special Advertising Page."
(For those who like to surf with JavaScript turned off, Forbes has been kind enough to include text links in a noscript tag)
Media Press Release Part 2
Several people at SES mentioned how funny they thought my email from my good blog spamming buddy David (from Media Press Release) was.
Well, guess what?….. He’s back for more!
(warning: put the coffee down before reading)