Cake, Ethics, and Google

I don’t eat much cake, but a single slice package at the grocer caught my eye. That started a trip down memory lane into the ‘60s and that meandered into a recent case study of how one company beat Google at its own game. Walk with me a moment and I’ll show you how a sweet tooth led me to question what I would do for money.

Dessert

Ever heard of Sock it to Me Cake? Me either, but it’s good. I’d call it Spice Cake Gone Wild. When I put that remark on Facebook, a friend asked where I found it. Another buddy beat me to the punch line and replied that they served it at Laugh-In Market.

I was a little girl when Rowan and Martin’s show was on the air. I giggled at the slapstick, but didn’t really appreciate the controversial topics they constantly satirized that gave network censors and executives ulcers. But, when I recently saw a PBS show on it, I was dumbfounded at how topical and relevant those skits still were today.

The Law

I was in grade school when busing and integration hit our little town.  My brother served in Vietnam. I was in a big city when the AIDS crisis first hit. A mixed race couple bought my first house, much to the dismay of one neighbor who lamented how multi-cultural her once all-white neighborhood was becoming.

Those were akin to the types of controversial topics Laugh-In took on and all I could think while watching the clips was that it has taken passing laws to make many folks wake up to the fact that humans are some of the most inhumane creatures on the planet.

When do we get to the point that we internalize that we can’t lie, mistreat, and steal our way to happiness?

Search Engines

Thinking about personal ethics led me to recall a case study I read about an SEO (Search Engine Optimization) firm that figured out how to make a junk site worth millions. Over the past year Google has been implementing algorithms to make what displays in your search results more relevant and of high value. To do that, they need to penalize junk sites that are just luring you in with great headlines and keywords so you’ll click on their ads.

The case study showed the black-hat practices used to get their site ranked high in six month, which made the domain worth $43 million. Yep, you read that right. Of course, the only reason these methods came to light was to point out what not to do because that site had been penalized by Google and taken out of the search engine, so now the domain was worth nearly nothing.

Drawing Conclusions

While I was finishing off the last bite of cake, I got to thinking about that SEO firm and their unethical behavior. Then I got to thinking about Google itself. I mean, who are they, the Internet police? They claim to be making search better for us but what they’re really doing is attempting to eliminate the junk sites so that quality sites with Google Ads come to the top.

And what about that SEO firm? What did they do that was so bad? They didn’t lose other people’s money. They lost their own. That sounds more like Vegas than Wall Street. And, what they really lost was the time and effort. Domain names and hosting are cheap, and they certainly didn’t pay a staff to write quality content; just a few folks to get backlinks. Don’t think for a minute they laid off those folks either. They’ve probably got 1000 domain names they’re doing much the same with.

Bottom line, no one was harmed and no laws were broken. In fact, there aren’t any laws about that sort of thing. Google is not the law. After all, there is always Bing and not many SEO firms are trying to game them yet.

I use white-hat SEO practices on all my sites and I’m eking out a living. I’ve walked away from six figure job offers that wanted to do the same thing for their clients that the SEO firm did for themselves. Now I bet those client sites have been dropped from Google too if they went through with it.

Things that Make You Go Hmm

That $43 mil figure haunts me. The SEO firm didn’t spend more than 10 minutes doing what takes me hours every week, like writing quality content that helps folks, or commenting on a social media post from a colleague. SEO stuff is all just a game when you get into the big league. It’s rather cloak and dagger, cat and mouse play. There’s a lot of money at stake. I would imagine it’s more than the casinos rake in each day but less than Wall Street.

Yeah, I could live on that. But, could I shift my mind and my ethics to earn it? Could you? I suppose I could for a junk site, but not one I care about sustaining. Maybe that’s the rub.

The fact is black hat SEO practices are bad for sites that want to sustain a business presence online. But what if you just want to flip a domain? Is it like flipping a house? You put sweat equity into it but you never live there. It’s never your home and it was never meant to be. But, for who moves in next, it is home. Do they have to do a cleansing to get rid of the vibe that made it worth having?

I don’t sit well with folks that make promises and take money then deliver shoddy work or worse, just flat rip people off. I’m trying to figure out how the SEO firm is truly unethical in what they did. Maybe I could see it if I weren’t peering through a $43 million dollar haze.

Arrested Attention

My neighbor and I sat on his back patio, taking a break, and talking politics. We’re of different ideologies, which ensures we go vote so we can cancel each other out. It also makes for blissfully entertaining conversation that includes world history and the evolution of human behavior and thought, among other topics. But, something made us both instantly go quiet and put our debate aside.

Raised with Manners

When Mother speaks, you shut up and listen. That’s the way we were both raised; he on the Jersey shore and me in a small West Tennessee town. We’re a little over a decade apart in age, but good manners were ubiquitous in our generations, and those before us, and in his grandkids after us. I wish I could say that of the rest of their generation.

What made us both go silent was the screech of a red tailed hawk in flight. She/he/it was upset about something. And we knew that because hawks are rather stealthy otherwise. The element of surprise pays for dinner. We sat there, investigating the sky and the ground, trying to identify the issue. But we didn’t. And we didn’t return to our previous conversation either.

Pay Attention

It’s not that we rarely see hawks here. We see them all the time, along with a myriad of other critters including prey and hunters. He’s seen a mama squirrel throw a suitor out the nest. I surprised a raccoon in my trash can. It was a mutual shock. He’s seen a deer nibbling in our yards and last spring I had to tip toe around a skunk nesting on the edge of my carport. He saw her with two kittens in tow when she left. Salamanders run right between his feet and the feral cat that no one else can get near settles down about ten feet or so away from him while spying the rabbits in my yard that I’m enjoying from my second story deck. (Most all the critters come within feet of my deck. I suppose they think I’m in a cage and won’t bother them.)

Even so, the sight of a hawk in flight is inspiring enough to arrest the conversation of humans, especially when it is speaking.

Change the Topic

After a few moments of silence, he told me where he was going to put in raised beds this year so his grandkids can see where food comes from and to dissuade the notion that everything is about instant gratification. It takes time for veggies to grow. I’ll be picking snippets off his basil plant again this year. I watch the pot with loving interest as it grows. Food tastes different when it has been loved over, either in the growth or the preparation, or both.

I don’t know if the hawk appreciates being listened to. I know my neighbor and I are mindful to extend the courtesy, though. We make an effort to cohabitate peacefully with what else lives here, and the yards and sky are common space for all to enjoy. I just hope the rabbits don’t eat all the veggies!

Just Let Go

There was a bug on my window as a drove down the road yesterday. It was a little thing and looked a bit like a firefly, but I think it may be too early in the season for them. The more I drove, the more it started talking to me. You know, the way life lessons come in whispers.

For Dear Life

The bug was on my driver’s door window. So, I only had a glimpse of it now and then while keeping my eyes mainly ahead. I could see that it flattened out its feet the faster I drove; hanging on to the slick surface for dear life.

It was taking the wind broadside with head down toward the ground. I suppose it thought it could wedge its body into a slope that the wind would go over and that would be better than having its head taken off. I’m pretty sure the bug didn’t apply that much logic to the situation, but I do believe bugs are master engineers never the less. Look at all they build, especially the flying kind.

Turn Loose Already

When I came to a red light, I hoped the little thing would turn loose and fly off. But it didn’t. It just loosened its grip a bit until I took off again. Then it flattened its feet and sloped its side and held one to the only bit of security it had. After all, that had worked before.

Listening

And that’s when the bug started to speak to me. As tenacious as I am, I wondered how often I’ve hunkered down and held on to something while it moved, bringing nearly unbearable forces upon me. If, at any time, the little thing had just let go, the forces would have stopped and it could have flown freely anywhere else. Of course, it would have had to endure the jet wash for a tumbling moment. But, it would have been okay. And, it could have avoided that if it had let go while the vehicle was stopped.

I wonder what I’ve chosen that looked like a good place to sun myself that suddenly turned into the ride of my life.

What really got me was that this bug had wings. Surely any perceived danger of letting go could not be any worse than the very real danger of hanging on. If it let go, it would not fall and splat when it landed. But, it might get parts torn off if it stayed.

I wonder which of my skill sets I’m exercising with great focus to accomplish a goal that may actually be keeping me from applying another skill set that would serve me better. And, is the goal I’m currently all caught up in even worthwhile?

It’s very impressive to see a bug withstand a 70 mph wind. But, it also reminds me that just because I can do something doesn’t mean I should.

The bug was gone before I got home. I don’t know when it left, or if it went voluntarily. I was watching the road, and listening.

Cycles in Cycles

Over the weekend I put the first cut on the lawn for the year. While doing so, I had the opportunity to notice a multiplicity of cycles that ran beyond the turning of the season. It made me think of the stillness of trees. If you stay in one spot long enough, you see the cycles as they pass into bigger cycles and on into yet larger wholes. This is a story of men and trees and taking notice.

The Battle Begins

I’ve lived in this house nearly twenty years. And, every year around this time the battle of the chickweed begins. It has become a test of wills. Chickweed may eventually win the war, but I’m not ready to send up the white flag just yet.

The reason the cycle of the chickweed continues is because it has to be killed before it can go to seed. Problem is, the temperature has to be high enough to use the stuff needed. So, it’s always too cold to kill chickweed before the next crop is sown. But, I am grateful that it is a cool season weed. Makes it easier to forget the work of the chore and instead enjoy being out on a pretty day while it’s still officially winter.

Chickweed has to be pulled by hand from around the beds to untangle it from the foliage. With it I pulled a higher than usual number of small limbs from atop the monkey grass and all around the base. The trees here are getting old and the storms have been rough through the winter. I didn’t mind picking up the limbs. That’s dead wood I wouldn’t have to get on a ladder and cut. The good wind knows how to do her work. And so the cycle of growth and decay and dropping off continues. There’s just a lot more dropping off lately.

Someone planted these trees before I bought the property. I’m just their current steward. They’ll be here after me, if a storm doesn’t take them first. Both whirling and straight-line winds have taken about ten already.

Grandpa, Dad, and Junior

I had an audience when I brought out the power gear. The small boy across the street stood on the corner of his yard with his dad to see what the roaring thing was coming from behind my house.

They are not the first audience to watch me mow. Two houses up a grandfather and grandson sat beneath their three-story tall pines every day after school. Some days they watched me putter around in the yard. Some days I watched them. Eventually the grandson took over the riding mower duties while the grandfather tended the beds.

About ten years ago a twister took those pine trees. A few years later I stopped seeing the grandfather, but the grandson kept mowing the yard. Now that house is for sale and the grandson drives a monster truck. This, in the same month a new set of men are watching me drive circles around the trees while ducking. I’m sure it was quite a show for junior.

And if that wee boy spends his young life in the house across the street, helping his dad in the yard, he may see someone new pulling chickweed from the bed here or digging the hole for a sapling. That’s the way cycles are. The little ones roll into the bigger ones and the wheel keeps turning.

Birdie Video

In anticipation of making the videos for the Sage Age lecture on How Thoughts Become Reality, I’ve been playing with my new Flip video camera. The key word here is playing. The lecture video is a huge project and I have to learn a whole new skill set to produce it. But, like any of my projects, I tend to learn by doing. And, the best way I know to do that is through play.

I love kindergarten. Why? Because sticking your fingers in paint is fun! Learning through play refreshes me in a state of joy. It opens up my creativity and sense of discovery.

With that in mind, I placed the camera on the ledge of the deck to capture some of what else brings me joy that is always close at hand, which is my back yard.

There are only a couple of scenes, and the birds were shy about being seen on camera. But, they weren’t shy about being heard. If you listen closely in the first segment, you’ll even hear a woodpecker.

I hope you enjoy this little three minute video visit to my neck of the woods, literally. I sure had fun making it.

Click the BirdTweets Video link. I apologize for the upload time. I’m still figuring that part out

Pink and White

Look what popped out at my house today! When these blooms start falling, it will look like someone is having a wedding here.

Easter Sunset

It has been perfect weather here for Easter sunrise services and it ended with an equally beautiful sunset this evening.