As you may have noticed, Google is now employing social search. It’s what you might say a “hot button issue” in the online community. Why? Too many reasons to list here. Essentially, those that trusted Google’s rules for making “great natural search content” are now stuck with the reality that a significant chunk of Google’s search audience no longer receive natural results.

I won’t judge the merits of social search versus natural search here. My personal preference is for natural search though, as I want my results to not be biased towards what my peers, friends, and frenemies like to read. Others may be better off with those enhancements and biases to their results.

Regardless, as a publisher, you are either doing really great, or really bad at this point from Google’s perpetual shuffles over the past 12 to 16 months. Few I’ve run into are doing “okay” or “same as before”.

The advantage to WordPress Multisite though is that it benefits both the people that are doing “great” and the people that have been… excuse me for a second. Christopher is searching on Google for a synonym for the word screwed… Under the weather. Eh, close enough.

If you don’t know what Multisite is, it originally began its life as WordPress MU, or Multiuser. It was a synchronized fork of WordPress. As of version 3.0, it’s a tightly-integrated part of the WordPress core.

Multisite lets you create a lot of sites at once, what would have taken hours previously can be done in 30 minutes or less per site. You no longer have to deploy plugins, themes, configuration settings, etc. A quick DNS redirection, few tweaks to your WP-Admin panel, and you have another new WordPress site. And, you can now share user-bases between sites.

If you’re a WordPress zealot, you might be saying “gee, that’s great Chris… welcome to three major versions ago.” Well, that is true. However, version 3.0 and 3.1 really were migratory versions for WMPU users. If you had a WPMU install, Multisite worked great. If you weren’t a WPMU veteran, problems ensued. Remmeber how a lot of plugins needed to be compatible with WordPress MU before installing them? Issues were everywhere.

At version 3.2 however, it started to make sense, and by WordPress 3.3, I had Multisite up and running in my labs. And, it’s now live and running on sites like PhoneNews.com. Now some of those downtime tweets and apologies make more sense… you may not see any differences, but it’s all about planning for the future.

Now that you know what Multisite is, and how Multisite evolved, I haven’t yet answered why it helps you with Social Search.

Obviously having speed in creating more sites will help with search; natural and social alike. You can branch out with more content, and not need to tackle hosting and logistical issues as often. And, Multisite’s ability to let you quickly roll out all the WordPress social-networking integrations easily helps too.

The real benefit though is in the ability to take your flock of followers from your first site, and carry them over to your next site. By creating related sites, you can now keep people logged in, and interacting across related topics. With BuddyPress and bbPress, you can now keep them blogging, discussing, and talking in a community that you own and control.

Part of social search, in my opinion, is the need to create your own community that has its own followers. You basically have to act like search engines don’t exist, and depend on your own community for traffic and viewers. In turn, your community will share that with their friends online… strengthening your position in social search, naturally.

Bottom line, if you have WordPress up and running, and you’re serious about publishing, it’s time to give Multisite a try. One suggestion though, don’t deploy Multisite on your production site. You can always enable it after you’ve tested with another WordPress install on the same server. Much of the downtime I encountered was due to a server move, which was needed to handle the traffic increase.

And that leaves one footnote to this primer. WordPress is not the most memory-friendly, CPU friendly Content Management System out there. Multisite does not really do much to help this, as your hosting account is now driving multiple sites on one account. Be prepared, especially if you are on shared hosting, to have a growth plan in place for a quick move to more-powerful hosting solutions.

There are even posts out on the web dating back to when I was in the 4th Grade… over fifteen years ago! Yes, I am a firm believer in that practice.

That’s why it’s so sad when I’ve been encouraged, by Google web search employees no less, to delete old content. What’s the reason? The search world has changed.

Search engines are now reflecting that the Internet is, well, getting older. Search engines now are starting to take into account the age of sites… not just the relevance of their content, but the caliber of their content. Articles that are too small, take long to load, and deliver what Google calls a “poor web experience” are better off not existing.

Generally, today, everyone has determined that inside one of Google’s major updates this year (which many call Panda, though that is a very broad term applied to way too much), that article content must increase. Simply, the size of articles needs to span a couple of full pages of text, if it were printed out. Generally, people have settled at between 300 and 400 words being the bare-bones minimum.

While I don’t agree with this, it’s the reality of web search today. And, as such, I’ll begin issuing the edicts to delete, modify, and redirect old articles… just about everywhere. From this blog, to PhoneNews.com, to elsewhere. It’s just what needs to be done to stay competitive in web search today. Old articles will be 301 redirected when possible to relevant content, and I’ll be making it a requirement that all old articles are documented for being updated/revised, in many cases years after they were first penned.

Granted, this opens a lot of new questions, such as what we do with old web content? Should it still exist somewhere, other than the web archives? In an ideal world, yes, people should set up separate domains for old content that sites like Google deem “poor”, and the give people the ability to still access them.

For now, what I’m doing is creating a backup of everything pre-realignment, and then pulling up my sleeves and getting to work. Having penned thousands of articles, I definitely have my hands full. Maybe you do as well, what’s your thoughts on this?

A lot of people have made the assertion that MeeGo could thrive without Nokia’s presence in the collaboration. And, there’s some potential for traction there as Android lawsuits and patent claims mount. However, as they mount, Google has shown their willingness to acquire as many patents as possible to thwart those lawsuits.

In short, those that think that Samsung and LG will dump Android for MeeGo due to patents and licensing… well, are wrong. It isn’t going to happen, probably even if MeeGo bundles a Dalvik runtime, enabling full Android app compatibility.

So, is MeeGo dead? In its current form, yes, I think it is. But, then there is Canonical. Canonical’s efforts in mobile have had far worse failures than MeeGo, however they are the undisputed champion of desktop Linux today.

And therein, we see a solution. Make MeeGo part of the Ubuntu family, and make everyone happy.

I realize there is a lot of motivation around the Qt community to keep MeeGo as-is. However, these Qt attractions lack one focus; a product to sell to consumers. Qt alone does not sell products. And while Canonical’s market share in desktops is fractional, they get Linux, and they know how to foster a product that rivals Google, Apple, and Microsoft.

I think the future of MeeGo rests on a deal being cut, and sadly, I’d say the odds of it happening are only 50/50. Today, there is not one successful real-time OS that lacks restrictions. iOS is real-time, but trapped in a walled garden. Android and Windows Phone 7 are not real-time, and webOS has suffered from being jailed in HP’s devices… where it has rotted.

MeeGo as a platform, I believe can work, however, I believe just as strongly that it will require the embrace of the entire Linux community to catapult it to success in a mainstream consumer audience. Let’s work together to have one true Linux platform become a success across mobile, desktop, and embedded. The Ubuntu umbrella can be one that encourages all other forms of Linux to thrive, even if Ubunutu isn’t how you roll.

However, I will say that I am disappointed at the pricing that has emerged on other web sites (here’s just one for example).

At double the pricing for Amazon’s Cloud Drive, I can’t say I’ll be using iCloud. For $120/year I get unlimited storage on CrashPlan, for up to 10 computers worth of storage in my house. Other online backup services combine online backup with mobile app access to all your files, at one low monthly price.

What about communication? Calendars? Etc? All freely supported on Google Apps. Which, I might add, is still free for up to 10 email addresses worth. At the current free Google storage rates, that translates to 75 GB per domain name… and domain names cost only a few dollars a year.

I hear the argument all the time that these cloud services are different than raw storage, they make lives easier. Granted, I don’t think iCloud should compete with the “unlimited storage” shared hosting solutions. I think that’s unrealistic.

That said, I think cloud solutions do have to compete with services like Google Apps and Windows Live. If I can store documents via email, if I can manage them in a Gmail view, and if I get 25 GB free from Windows Live SkyDrive… what am I paying for with iCloud?

Of course, there’s the freemium argument as well. People will get “hooked” on iCloud with the first 5 GB, and then want more. And they then won’t want to move. Sorry, I don’t buy it. I think people will get more tech savvy as their 5 GB get used up, and ask even more technically-inclined people for a way to keep the free file bash going.

That may work for Apple too, but it’s far from a cost-effective solution. iCloud may be the best cloud out there, but in terms of bang for your buck, I don’t think it’s there yet. Not with the pricing that has been disclosed, at least.

And, as you may have noted, PhoneNews.com will be suspending the display of advertisements from Google AdSense.

We took a careful look at CTIA this year, and it wasn’t an easy decision to not send anyone. However, short of a few 3D Android phones, the news will be pretty mild this year. It may be the least newsworthy CTIA in terms of proportions since we started covering CTIA expos.

Based on those factors, we decided it wasn’t the best idea to attend CTIA over on PhoneNews.com. So, I won’t be there and nobody else from the team will be either. You can bet safely that coverage will continue of anything that develops of note at the show.

My point to this post is that, like elections, Google changes have consequences to small publishers and large alike. PhoneNews.com is intentionally sitting this one out to shift our resources to overcoming inequalities in the new PageRank system, and to better realign towards direct advertising.

There are a lot of angles to the debate of the last Google shuffle, but I’m avoiding that fray in this post. Clearly, those who ignore those changes and continue with business as usual, are the businesses that are most likely to fail.

In the end, taking a step back this year will help us be better than our competition, despite unfair bonus points that some search engines may be giving them. And, it will allow us to continue doing what we do best; give people into phone news, the best phone news possible.

For the sake of the developers, I’ll call them Team X. Team X had a great product on the market, it was great at updating Mac software. I wanted to take that to another level, and add App Store functionality, get funding, and make a software marketplace that would transcend Mac and Windows.

I’d been watching the iPhone (now iOS) App Store, and saw its potential. Mind you, this was circa 2007-2008, when Cydia was impressive before it took a single jailbroken App Store purchase.

So, what killed the project off? I listened to Steve Jobs. No, not the way normal people do. I listened for his commentary on a Mac App Store when someone asked him about its potential. He said bluntly that there were no plans for one.

When you hear something that blunt from an Apple leader, you should know, then and there, that it’s the exact opposite of what you were just told. Just like nobody wants to watch videos on their iPod, the screen after all is just too small. When I heard that, I knew it was inevitable that Apple would leverage the iTunes Store infastructure, combine it with digital signatures (which at the time were brand new to Mac apps), and roll out their own App Store.

What’s next? I suspect Apple will continue the burn and roll out a Windows App Store. You might think this is insane. After all, Apple wants to ship Macs, not convince people to stay with Windows.

I however would argue there is a lot of merit in a Windows App Store, fueled by the largest commercial digital content distribution store ever (iTunes).

First, it’s a product that Microsoft has failed in completely. The Windows Marketplace was so much of a dud that Microsoft had to kill it off to give Windows Phone Marketplace a fighting chance… the desktop version paled in comparison.

Plus, Apple wants to show users the “Apple experience”. They want to prevent people from buying into the “Google experience”. Those two factors drive Apple to be okay with distributing Windows apps, so long as it takes place inside of Apple’s systems and Apple’s rules. It convinces more and more people to use iTunes on a daily basis, and that will fuel the additional sale of more iPhones, iPods, and iPads… all of which are successful because they are Windows-friendly.

Take Safari. Apple’s brilliant web browser was ported to Windows in order to ensure people could get a taste of the Apple browsing experience. It wasn’t needed for iTunes, despite what many think.

And, let’s not forget QuickTime for Windows. Many (too, too many) forget that QuickTime existed on Windows a good decade before Apple shipped iTunes. Some have screamed at me in postings that QuickTime only exists for iTunes, a laughable assertion. The reason QuickTime existed on Windows was the same as all the above examples; to get people to like Apple.

If people are buying, downloading, updating, and maintaining their their Windows software, the Apple way, it will be pure profit for Apple, and pure sting for Microsoft. I’m not interested in getting into a product fight with a company that has billions in the bank, hence why you can rest soundly that I won’t be building a Windows App Store right now.

So, just update your Google Analytics tags if you aren’t using the latest generation. That appears to be the cure-all. Mkay?

Safari 4 may lack all those community plugins, a point for which Safari is constantly critisized. But, that’s because people take Safari for granted.

That’s right. People take for granted that each new release of Safari will one-up the competition on launch speed, page rendering, and JavaScript. People take for granted that it will adopt the latest technologies. And, people take for granted that it will pick from the competition (like, Chrome) when the other guys come up with something better.

And, those that don’t think Safari is extensible, haven’t looked very far. From drop-and-compile WebKit browsers, to extension-level integration (Google Gears, anyone?), Safari 4 hasn’t changed, and I’m glad. From the kids who complain about their Internet Explorer being overloaded with malware, to the nerds who complain that 52 extensions make Firefox crash… Safari rises above all that.

Well, I won’t go with the flow on this. Safari 4 sets a new standard that makes Internet Explorer 8 really wish it hadn’t just gone RTM. Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox are great browsers. But, Safari is better, again. And, the browser wars will roll into their 97th generation, starting… now.

Sorry I’ve been absent from blogging for a week… I’ve been finalizing plans to move to Silicon Valley. That move will begin (and finish) mid-March.

For the third time, in a single week, I’ve had an international buyer back out due to shipping. They didn’t run the shipping calculator until after purchase. Then, when they realize that shipping from the U.S. is a raw deal for them… they proceed to email me, backing out of the auction.

Now, before this, a bidder backing out was rare. The vast majority were scammers, who were easily identifiable.

I’m not an eBay store. I don’t run an eBay business. I simply use eBay mostly to get rid of the tech junk which I have no use for. This is getting out of hand… because buyers know there’s next to no penalty now for bidding like crazy.

Think about it. The worst that can happen to a buyer now is a non-paying bidder strike. No matter, all they need to do is get about 10 positive feedbacks for eBay sellers to feel at ease. And, NPB strikes wear off much faster than the negative-to-positive ratio of feedbacks.

Why did eBay do this? To triple the value of a listing fee. If you have to re-list an item, you have to pay listing fees all over again. eBay doesn’t care if they have to refund the final auction value two, three, even four times. They still get their cut in the end, now with multiples of the listing fee.

In the end, I think eBay will lose from this. Sellers will be much more hesitant to tack on extras. I used to put Featured Listing ($19.95) on my big-ticket auctions (MacBook Pros, etc)… I sure won’t now. A bidder now has twice the power to back out of a deal, with little-to-no reprisal. I’m going to make sure my listing fees are as low as possible because of that.

So, eBay sellers, enjoy paying listing fees endlessly. Enjoy re-listing items and watching them depreciate in your hands. Google, Google, where for art thou Google?

Why is this? Well, Google is deploying the Gears setup inside of /Users/yourname/Library/Cache (or, ~/Library/Cache as we commonly denote the path as).

Well, this isn’t really a good place for Google to store Gears data. I can see why they did it… after all, all Gears does is cache files, and the logical place for cached files is… the Cache folder! Wouldn’t it be great if other Mac developers thought with such clarity.

However, with Gears, you don’t want that data wiped out easily. When it is wiped out, you have to go back and re-approve each site to use Gears. Typically, savvy users may clear a cache after a major Mac OS X update (say, 10.5.5 which was released yesterday). Clearing a cache isn’t necessary… I don’t want people to think that they have to. But, if you’re extremely tech savvy… some of the tinkering around that you do, can cause the cache to become a problem. Hence, normal users are fine, but enthusiasts may want to clear their caches.

Worse, tech savvy people are the most likely to install Gears. Hence, the people most likely to use Gears… are the most likely to clear caches as well.

My suggestion would be to move Gears data to ~/Application Support/Google/Gears as that would avoid the problem. Alternatively, a future version of Gears probably should save true cache data inside of ~/Library/Cache while keeping the approval data in the new folder I just suggested. That way, the next time you run your browser (after clearing a cache), Gears would just re-download/update the cached files automatically.