So, Google rolled out Google Buzz in my Gmail account last night. I thought I would share my experiences since and my thoughts on their impact and its future. There are a few positives towards the end too, I promise! Here are a few quick links: 

• The negatives
• The positives
• Google’s positives
• Mobile Buzzing
• A summary

My “oh Buzz off” moments: 

1. Connected sites
   Google decided to connect PicasaWeb and my Flickr account automatically. I disconnected both twice, but they resurfaced each time. So far I’m winning. Watch this space.
   Google also appears to have ‘found’ my YouTube page. Naturally as they own YouTube, this isn’t a massive surprise, just not expected. My YouTube channel does not have the same name as my Gmail account, however… Some clues can be found on my Google Profile page where Google has clearly done some sniffing around to find the following sites. Note however, I have NOT used my Gmail account to sign up to any of these sites. I can only assume Google has been reading my email:
   

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My 2009 was quite simply, epic. And therefore, so is this post!

This time last year I chose “get results” as my New Year’s resolution.  I ended up changing my life around within a month. Here’s where it all began:

How it started

2008 I took exams and continued building solid career experiences at a web design company in Nottingham. I was working as a web marketing consultant there until February 2009 when they told me some gutting news; they had to make me redundant. As devastated as I was to leave, I’d had a niggling urge in the back of my mind for a few months about travelling or relocating. Being made redundant made me turn those ideas into a reality and I started to explore travel options and research living and working in London, leaving my quiet countryside life behind. One of my leaving presents was the book The Yes Man by Danny Wallace (aff)  – one of the best gifts of the year as I followed in his footsteps and ended up changing my life around and having some phenomenal experiences in the months that followed.

Gathering momentum towards the Big Smoke

In the month between finishing my job in Nottingham and moving to London, a LOT happened!

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So LinkedIn’s had a redesign. In addition to a new minimalist look and feel that utilises more viewing space, they have balanced this positive step forward with a definite ‘two steps back’ approach by deciding to add profile URLs that include a country-specific subdomain.

Here’s what I mean. My old profile URL, which still works, is: http://www.linkedin.com/in/joannabutler

However, this is now appearing on profiles as the following:

Not only this, but other country codes are also working as @danbarker noticed: Read more…

Below are my slides from my presentation at A4U Expo 2009 in London this week – finally, after battling with Slideshare and firewalls, Scribd saved the day! I really enjoyed giving my web analytics talk where I managed to spy on delegates, give out free Latitude USB sticks and swear thanks to one of my favourite quotes – quite an achievement! Of course, that was all whilst giving out lots of practical GTD tips for analytics using segmentation techniques. I was also privileged to be joined by Will Critchlow and Lisa Myers who gave their own invaluable technical analytics presentations.

In case you missed it before the event, Search Cowboys also interviewed me about my talk, which I later learned was the most retweeted interview – so thank you to those who retweeted!

Overall it was a fantastic two days where I met and caught up with many inspirational people. If you have any questions or just want to keep in touch, please do! A few of my details are below, but you can find my full contact details here.

• Email: Joanna at Search Engine Chocolate dot com
• Connect with me on LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/JoannaButler
• Follow me on Twitter: @JoannaButler

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I’m finally back home in London after a fantastic day yesterday in Nottingham at the Chartered Institute of Marketing East Midlands annual one-day conference, the Power of Marketing. I really enjoyed giving a couple of workshops on SEO, including some cutting edge tips, practical social media and web analytics advice and some PPC guidance. A lot of you requested my slides after the event, so I’ve posted them below. I hope you find them useful – if you have any further questions, don’t hesitate to get in touch!

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Firstly, thank you to all of you who sent me questions via Twitter to ask Sir Tim Berners-Lee tonight at the Science Museum (see previous post as well). I was live Tweeting the event using the hashtag #Berners-Lee.

The talk was truely fascinating, and by no means just a simple run down of how the Internet was born. I left feeling Sir Tim Berners-Lee was a true genius, and so genuine. The talk was actually filmed by BBC Click and as I was on one of the front rows you are guaranteed to see me in the background mesmerised by his talk and tweeting updates!

Below is a mini write-up including answers to your questions tonight:

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Shortly I’ll be heading off to the Science Museum in London to watch a talk by the inventor of the Internet, Sir Tim Berners-Lee. The talk is on The Web Revealed and is part of the Science Museum’s Centenary Talks. Unsurprisingly it’s turned out to be a very popular event and completely sold out.

Earlier, I asked my Twitter followers for questions to pose to Sir Tim Berners-Lee and so far had some great, if very funny, ones! Here are a few:

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I’m incredibly excited to announce that I’ll be speaking at A4UExpo London in October 2009!

Together with Lisa Myers from Verve Search and Will Critchlow from Distilled, we’ll be covering analytics for affiliate conversion, identifying and breaking down the obstacles preventing visitors from converting.

And, especially for you guys, I’ve got a special discount code giving you 10% off places at A4U Expo London! Read more…

As Malcolm Coles just posted, and several others have noticed, Google removed the top horizontal menu in their search results pages (SERPs), and also removed the link to log in for around a day. Was this a glitch or was Google testing for a future update?

Now, I like change and especially to see what Google is up to when it experiments, but they can’t really think this would be a change for the better? What are the potential implications of this?

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Earlier in March this year I was privileged enough to speak at the first ever Think Visibility conference in Leeds. It promised to cover all things digital, with big names talking on SEO, affiliate marketing, mobile, accessibility, social media and more – and it certainly delivered!

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