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As has become tradition for me, I walked the halls and session rooms of PubCon Las Vegas 2011 with my camera, seeking to capture faces of the SEO/Search industry. Here’s a selection of those photos along with a story behind the faces. Faces of PubCon 2011 There’s 42 faces in the photo above, a small but notable selection of people that dedicate their days (and many nights) to the industry of search. One of the first photos I took after arriving in Las Vegas was of Neil Marshall (engine) and Amanda Randall, two of the many people that work to

Recently while doing business listing research on the city of Los Angeles, I got the opportunity to view and photograph a rare advertisement from the 1873 Los Angeles City and County Directory. The ad is for a saloon owned by historical Los Angeles figure Henry Dockweiler (aka Heinrich Dockweiler). The 1915 Los Angeles City Directory (and the 1916 directory) had advertisements for locally brewed and bottled beer by the Los Angeles Brewing Company, but I don’t recall any advertisements for local saloons. Check out this advertisement for Henry Dockweiler’s Mammoth Lager Beer Saloon, which was located under Temple Bank, in

One of 51 earthquake fault lines in Southern California, the Blue Cut fault extends for about 50 miles through the Little San Bernardino Mountains, under Pleasant Valley, and into the Pinto Basin. Most of the 50 mile length exists within the boundaries of Joshua Tree National Park (JTNP), one of my favorite desert hiking environments. Note: This is not a guide to Hiking the Blue Cut Fault, it’s more an October day photo journey through the region. In the mid 1800s, there was a wagon mule trail that traversed through the area, providing passageway for miners transporting gold and mining

This is part 3 of my three-part series on Local Search in Google (The Centroid Battle for Las Vegas). In part one we dissected a Google 7 Pack page for hotels in Las Vegas, Nevada. In part two we took a close look at a major hotel property that had virtually disappeared from local hotel search results on that same ’7 Pack’ page. In part 3 we are going to look at a variation of how a hotel property can ‘disappear’ even though its physical location suggests it is in one of the best possible locations for top rankings. Our

This is the second of a three-part series on Local Search in Google (The Centroid Battle for Las Vegas). In the first post of this series (read it again), we dissected the ’7 pack’ of results that appeared when searching for Las Vegas hotels. Seeing who is listed in the 7 pack is easy, discovering who is not, takes a little bit more research. Las Vegas is known for magic shows that mystify audiences (it’s also legal to drink from open containers), so how about we look behind the curtain to see how a major hotel property in Las Vegas,

This is the first of a three-part series on Local Search in Google (The Centroid Battle for Las Vegas). In this post we’re going to look at the ’7 pack’ of results that appear when searching for hotels in Las Vegas, Nevada. I do much of my research for local in the city of Las Vegas, primarily because there is more of everything that one might be searching for. For example, there are scenarios where a hotel can be found on every corner, which makes it easier to study how one business location is ranking versus the others. Our research

Taking photos in Las Vegas: is that a drunken batman in the background? While walking along the Las Vegas Strip I spotted this local wearing a not so welcoming t-shirt and enjoying a 24oz Pabst Blue Ribbon. It wasn’t until I got home that I noticed someone else was in this photo. Take a look. aka Welcome to Las Vegas Not the most friendly t-shirt but I thought it was funny so I asked permission to take this guys picture. What I didn’t see was the man in tights leaning against the railing while polishing off what was likely an

Black Eagle Mine Road heads east off of Pinto Basin Road in Joshua Tree National Park (JTNP). The left fork in the road is Old Dale Road and it leads to the Dale Mining District, located outside the boundary of JTNP. Black Eagle Road dead ends at a barricade of boulders near the Iron Chief Mine, which is on BLM land. The quest for Gold brought people here in the early 1880s. 2010 Jeep Rubicon on Black Eagle Mine Road For this day trip I drove my recently purchased 2010 Rubicon Unlimited Jeep (didn’t have the custom mattress yet). I’ve

I like the location of the Bally’s Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. It’s pretty much centered on the strip and has close access to the monorail, transportation I use quite frequently when attending conferences at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Bally’s Hotel Casino Las Vegas At Night I noticed I had a fairly full set of nighttime photos taken outside the Bally’s Hotel and Casino, shot with my Canon Rebel, and 10-22 wide-angle lens. Maybe you’ve never been to Las Vegas (did you know you can walk to the strip from the airport?) or seen the strip at night.

No doubt you’ve noticed an increase in QR Codes appearing in advertising this past year, like the QR Codes appearing in airline magazines, a perfect place for these codes (imo). But people have also been noticing them in odd places as well, like on billboards, and other difficult to scan locations. While visiting Oakland CA recently for a chiropractic college event, I saw a doozy of a QR Code fail while waiting for the Bart at the Oakland City Center. It appeared, the only way to scan the code (an advertisement from Overstock), would be by crossing the tracks at